George Rickey

(USA) *1907 in South Bend, Indiana; †2002 in Saint Paul, Minnesota

The American artist George Rickey is considered one of the most significant representatives of kinetic art. In Germany also, numerous examples of his work are on display in public open spaces in Berlin and Münster, Bonn, Frankfurt and other cities. Rickey came late to sculpture. In 1945 – inspired by the works of Alexander Calder – he started to make mobiles, then shortly after, his first kinetic works. Since the early 1950’s he has created his typical steel sculptures, based on geometric forms, with hinged elements which, without the help of motors, are set into motion by the lightest current of air. In 2001 Rickey’s ”Six Triangles Hexagon V” was on display in the ”Blickachsen” exhibition. This year, ”Blickachsen 7” presents his steel sculpture ”Two Planes Vertical Horizontal, Var. III” in the Orangerie garden of the Bad Homburg castle. A mechanical tree, whose two square ”leaves“ seem to dance in the wind, reflecting the variations in light, the sculpture stands on this site from May to October this year in the normal summer position of the exotic Orangerie trees.