Contemporary Discoveries

Contemporary Discoveries

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 23. Seven Rotors Hanging.

George Rickey

Seven Rotors Hanging

Lot Closed

July 19, 09:36 PM GMT

Estimate

40,000 - 60,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

George Rickey

1907 - 2002

Seven Rotors Hanging


stainless steel

20 by 38¼ by 28 in.

51 by 97 by 71 cm.

Executed in 1986; this example is number 1 from an edition of 3.

Gallery Yamaguchi, Tokyo

Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1991

“Since the design of the movement is paramount, shape, for me, should have no significance of itself; it merely makes movement evident.” — George Rickey 


Seven Rotors Haning serves as a quintessential example of Rickey’s delicately crafted kinetic sculptures. The present work, which the artist would describe as a “useless machine”, exists as a poetic structure which gravitates in its own space and time. By creating his own machines deprived of any apparent functionality, the artist is rejecting the mechanization of production in America’s consumerist society. His graceful sculptures capture the beauty of meaningless movement guided by the natural world. Rickel’s works, in which the element of perceptible time is incorporated into an essentially timeless medium, continue to spellbind viewers around the globe.