George Rickey Foundation

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George Rickey Foundation

The George Rickey Foundation advances appreciation and understanding of the life and work of artist George Rickey (1907-2002).

06/14/2026

Won’t you be my neighbor? ◽
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George Rickey, “Neighbors,” 1960. Stainless steel and enamel. Private collection.

06/06/2026

to George Rickey, born on this day in 1907! Enjoy this clip of Rickey ruminating on the nature of memory as he got older—from the film “George Rickey: Portrait of an Artist” directed by Seth Schneidman in 1987.
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“People hear a lot from me about the failure of memory. And I joke a little about it and say there’s nothing the matter with my memory, it is retrieval that is the problem. But I have the feeling that my ability to compare and analyze is sharpened. Memory is like taking a trip back to some place that I know.”
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George Warren Rickey was born in South Bend, Indiana on June 6, 1907. Rickey’s father was a mechanical engineer and his grandfather was a clockmaker, and they both encouraged his childhood interest in engineering and design. Rickey studied painting and drawing at school, both in the United States and in Europe; then he learned about mechanics and the effects of wind and gravity during his time in the Army Air Corps. Using these skills, he became an art teacher and an increasingly well-known artist, working mainly in the United States and exhibiting all over the world.
Many of his artworks were designed to be seen outside: large geometric forms, made of shiny stainless steel that reflect their changing surroundings, and naturally powered by breezes. His innovative sculptures are a unique combination of dynamic art and engineering precision.
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Clip of “George Rickey: Portrait of an Artist,” 1987. Directed by Seth Schneidman. Seven Hills Production.

06/02/2026

Last call to visit the exhibition “George Rickey: Ordered Movement,” on view at MARUANI MERCIER Gallery in Brussels through June 6, 2026.
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“George Rickey: Ordered Movement” is the second solo exhibition of the artist at MARUANI MERCIER. Spanning four decades of Rickey’s practice, from 1957 to 1997, the works in the exhibition highlight an extraordinary formal range and experimentation that characterise Rickey’s spatially dynamic sculptures executed on a smaller scale.
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Learn more at https://maruanimercier.com/exhibitions/166-ordered-movement-george-rickey/.
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Photographs by MARUANI MERCIER

05/27/2026

“In their new neighborhood [in Rome], George explored the Porta Portese flea market and picked up a cache of old watch parts. Attaching their small, circular shapes to a wheel spinning around a straight stem on a gimbal, he created ‘Trastevere Flower.’ In these found objects, he stumbled on a new form—the rotor, or wheel— which could easily have been inspired by the example of David Smith, not only in his tendency to incorporate the found object, but also, specifically, the introduction of wheels. With ‘Trastevere Flower’ as a start, Rickey would soon put the rotor to use in a variety of larger sculptures.”
–Belinda Rathbone, “George Rickey: A Life in Balance”
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See “Trastevere Flower” and many other works in MARUANI MERCIER Gallery’s exhibition “George Rickey: Ordered Movement,” on view in Brussels through June 6, 2026. Learn more at https://maruanimercier.com/exhibitions/166-ordered-movement-george-rickey/.
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George Rickey, “Trastevere Flower,” 1957. Stainless steel and brass polychrome, metal watch parts. George Rickey Foundation. Video by MARUANI MERCIER.

05/20/2026

Beauty in the details. ◽
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George Rickey, “Four Rectangles One Square Diagonal,” 1979. Stainless steel. George Rickey Estate.

05/13/2026

Consider this an invitation to pause, relax your shoulders, breathe deeply, and admire a work of art.
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George Rickey, “Four Lines Oblique Gyratory Square,” 1973 (1976). Stainless steel. Edition of 3. Currently on view at the South Coast Botanic Garden as a long-term loan from LACMA Los Angeles County Museum of Art).

05/08/2026

Can we bug you for a second?
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While George Rickey’s later sculptures used nature solely as a kinetic collaborator rather than inspiration for subject matter, his earlier works were often created and named to reflect subjects like trees, fish, birds, the sun and the moon. What insect do you think Rickey was thinking of when he created this sculpture?
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George Rickey, “Insect,” 1956. Stainless steel and paint. Whereabouts unknown.

04/29/2026

Whether in a pastoral setting in the countryside or a bustling city center, George Rickey’s sculptures frame, reflect, and stand out in their surroundings.
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Discover major George Rickey works in public collections around the globe at https://www.georgerickey.org/art/public-collection.
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George Rickey, “Two Rectangles Vertical Gyratory,” 1969. Stainless steel. City of Rotterdam, Netherlands. Photo by Jannes Linders.

04/22/2026

It’s opening day for “George Rickey: Ordered Movement” at MARUANI MERCIER Gallery! The exhibition on view from April 22 through June 6, 2026, is the second solo exhibition of the artist at MARUANI MERCIER, and the first following the gallery’s announcement of its European representation of the George Rickey Foundation earlier this year.
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Spanning four decades of Rickey’s practice, from 1957 to 1997, the works in the exhibition highlight an extraordinary formal range and experimentation that characterise Rickey’s spatially dynamic sculptures executed on a smaller scale. Responding to minute changes in the surrounding air currents, these delicately balanced forms evince the artist’s preoccupation with the nature of motion as a core theme in his practice. As Rickey remarked in an interview in 1968, “I think that I’ve tried to keep clear in my mind that my field is ordered movement. Whether it is in two dimensions, three dimensions, four dimensions, whether it is in colour or non-colour, my primary concern, my province is the movement.”
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Learn more at https://maruanimercier.com/exhibitions/166-ordered-movement-george-rickey/
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George Rickey, “Wild Carrot II,” 1958–87. Stainless steel, lead. George Rickey Foundation.

04/16/2026

A gentle, agile giant for .
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George Rickey, “Two Up Two Down,” 1967–68. Stainless steel. California State University, Northridge

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18111 Nordhoff St
Northridge, CA
91330-8385

Website

http://georgerickey.org/

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