South Bend, Indiana. Though born in Indiana, George Rickey was raised in Scotland and educated at art in schools in England and France.  He started his artistic career with painting where he explored the cubist style, portraiture, and murals.  Rickey interrupted his profession in 1930-31 to teach history and in 1941-45 to serve in the United States military during World War II.  In 1949, several years into his career, Rickey concentrated on sculpture.  He was one of the pioneering figures of the 20th century abstract sculpture.  He searched for new modes of expression in the Bauhaus tradition and turned to making mobiles, first in glass and later in stainless steel.  His works are most often simple rod-like forms or rectangles set in motion by air currents and balanced with meticulously engineered systems of counterweights, bearings, and gravitational pull.  Rickey’s moveable sculptures tend to magically alter a viewer’s perception of space.  They range from large outdoor sculptures to small tabletop pieces and always capture and redefine space.  Until his death in 2002, Rickey worked uninhibited in his uniquely creative style in East Chatam, New York.

(American, 1907 – 2002)