George Rickey

Acquired directly from the artist in 1984

This work is in very good condition overall. There is some light surface soiling. There are some very minor, scattered surface scratches. There is a very minor indentation on the rear center of the lower rectangle. The work is intended to be installed outdoors.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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In a still photograph, Two Open Rectangles Diagonal Jointed seems to imitate a shiny new industrial part. However, the piece does not have the predictable motion or practical function of a machine. George Rickey, the Oxford educated American Army Air Corps engineer-come-artist fashioned sculptures to “move like machines, and to do absolutely nothing useful” (Rickey, “Kinetic Sculpture,” Art and Artist, p. 170).  In doing so, he offered contraptions of contemplation, beauty, and contradiction for an era that demanded increased commercialism and utility. Whereas machines, in an age of ever-evolving technologies, are constantly being rendered useless, Two Open Rectangles Diagonal Jointed resists becoming outmoded, thereby demonstrating Rickey’s assertion that, “it is in art that the machine does not obsolesce” (Rickey, “Irrelevant Reflections,” in George Rickey: Kinetic Sculpture and Machines, n.p.). Influenced by constructivism yet often described as kinetic sculpture, Rickey’s pieces live well beyond their own art historical era.

As light sparkles on the oscillating metal parts of Two Open Rectangles Diagonal Jointed, the effect is entrancing. The unpredictable movements of the piece can be incited by the smallest gust of wind, making for a dynamic and exciting viewing experience. Whereas a piece by his contemporary, Alexander Calder, might invoke thoughts of utter randomness, Rickey’s sculptures always communicate more nuanced dialectics of order and chaos, freedom and limitation. The confluence of Rickey’s hard-edged metal rectangles and the organic way in which they move invites viewers to consider both the material and ethereal forces at play. This piece tries to assert its orderly form in its environment, yet with time the viewer realizes that it is the environment which controls the form's very motion. Two Open Rectangles Diagonal Jointed embodies the verity that as much as mankind tries to capture, conform, and impose, all of his creations are in the end left vulnerable to the whims of nature.