Label Type
Cultural/Historical ContextLabel
"Rickey was born in South Bend, Indiana but spent his youth in Scotland. He received a degree in art history at Balliol College, Oxford, and studied art at the Ruskin School, Oxford, . He also studied with Andre L'hote in Paris, at New York University, Iowa State and the Institute of Design, Chicago. From 1930 on, he taught in various universities including Indiana University, Tulane, the University of Washington and the University of California. Until 1950 he was known primarily for his painting, including murals for Olivet College, the U.S. Post Office at Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania and Knox College. Since then he has devoted most of his energies to kinetic sculpture. They are designed to be situated out of doors and to rely on air power for their motive force. The present work is a study for one of these sculptures.
About his kinetic work Rickey has written:
""To design with movement itself, as distinct _ from adding movement to a design, has been my preoccupation for the past fifteen years. Movement reveals itself most clearly in very simple forms, for example in a single line moving through space. Combined with a second line, moving contrapuntally, the two may cut each other; may divide, squeeze, and define space; and, moving at different speeds, may measure time in a surprisingly complex way."""