The Hyde Collection’s second annual installation of outdoor sculpture features large-scale kinetic artworks by the pioneering artist George Rickey (1907-2022), complemented by an indoor exhibition of his designs and smaller pieces. The historic house and gardens are a showcase for an exceptional collection of American and European art, including four sculptures by Rickey. The Hyde Collection features one of Rickey’s iconic dynamic pieces, along with several other artworks by him, and is the ideal venue for this celebration of George Rickey Across Time.
Rickey considered his signature kinetic sculptures to be abstract painting in motion. This examination of Rickey’s work will explore his evolution from early modernist inspirations to his own signature style. The artworks highlighted on this tour of the exhibition at The Hyde Collection show how he developed his original approach across time: from his youthful studies of ground-breaking modern artists, to his aesthetic breakthrough and iconic works made in the 1960s–90s, to his playful pieces designed later in life. Rickey’s moving sculptures also illustrate the passage of time through motion—symbolizing the very nature of life.
Rickey wanted his art to be accessible to the public, saying:
George Rickey (1907–2002) was an internationally renowned American artist, best known for his geometric, kinetic, modern sculptures. Many of these artworks are designed to be seen outside, engineered to move in response to air currents and made of stainless steel to reflect the changing natural surroundings.
Rickey was born in South Bend, Indiana, but lived and worked much of his life just 75 miles away from Glens Falls, settling in 1959 in East Chatham in upstate New York. Rickey trained and worked internationally, as well as nationally. In the 1920s, he studied painting and drawing in Glasgow, Oxford, and Paris; then in the 1930s, he became an art teacher and an artist, working at universities across the United States. During World War II, Rickey served in the Army Air Corps as an engineer, advancing his understanding of mechanics and motion. In the 1950s and his own fifties, Rickey had his artistic breakthrough—applying his interest in the flow of air currents to his artwork and developing his signature approach to kinetic sculpture: sculpture that moves. Rickey experimented with ways to depict motion through his sculptures for decades, making art until his death at the age of 95 in 2002.
One holiday when he was a child, his father gave George a steam engine. He recalled:
Kinetic sculpture is three-dimensional art that moves; the movement can be generated by machines, people, or—as with Rickey’s works—nature. Rickey was one of two famous 20th-century artists known for kinetic sculpture, the other being Alexander Calder, who created what are known as “mobiles.” Taking Calder’s mobiles as his starting point, Rickey combined his artistic and engineering skills to create complex types of movement. He used movement that ranged from back and forth (which he called “harmonic motion”) to circular paths (which he called “gyratory”) to arc-shaped (which he called “excentric”), expanding the dynamic potential of kinetic art.
Rickey considered movement his art form:
1935, Black ink and pencil on paper, 24 1/2” x 29 1/2” (framed), Collection George Rickey Foundation.
This drawing of New York City Rooftops, made by Rickey when he was a student in his twenties and the earliest piece on view, already illustrates the principles he used in his best-known works.
1965, Lithograph on white paper, 23 x 18”, Collection George Rickey Foundation.
In his fifties, Rickey’s pre- and postwar artistic training in Cubism, Constructivism, and abstraction, and his wartime mechanical engineering work, coalesced in his abstract stainless steel sculptures powered by air currents.
1968, Stainless steel, 18 x 16 x 3”, Collection George Rickey Foundation.
Starting with kinetic sculptures made of lines and planes, Rickey then began to combine engineering and geometry to animate what he called “ordinary shapes,” such as squares, circles, and triangles.
1984, Stainless steel, 2” x 127” x 127,” Collection George Rickey Foundation.
Eight Triangles Two Squares, created sixteen years after Two Triangles (#3), illustrates how Rickey’s work evolved.
1990, Stainless steel, 24 ½ x 13 x 7”, Collection George Rickey Foundation.
While most of Rickey’s works are non-representational with titles describing their shapes, some of them are more narrative.
2000, Polychromed stainless steel and slate, 4 ½ x 4”, The Hyde Collection.
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Rickey continued to work in the final years of his life, making small sculptures that he could fabricate on his own.
1968, Stainless steel painted, 156” x 72”, Collection George Rickey Foundation.
The Space Churn series is one of Rickey’s rare direct references to current events in his work.
1964, Bronze, 94 x 107”, The Hyde Collection.
Some of Rickey’s earliest experiments with kinetic sculpture were made of moving lines that combine aesthetics, engineering, and chance.
1991, Stainless steel, 94 x 40”, Collection George Rickey Foundation.
In Rickey’s mature work, he skillfully manipulates shape, scale, speed, and space.
Rickey Hyde was developed by Lisa Beth Podos, Arts Impact Consulting, with the assistance of Maria C. Lizzi and Victoria Petway, George Rickey Foundation; and Amanda Perry and Hilary Vlastelica, Surface Streets.
© George Rickey Foundation, Inc.
