George Rickey (American, 1907-2002).
Two Lines down Eighteen Feet. 1972
Stainless steel
18 ft. 9 1/2 in. x 15 ft. (572.8 x 457.2 cm)
Gift from the Carol and Stephen Shey Collection
2016.81
George Rickey was born in Indiana and grew up in Scotland. An artist and scholar, Rickey began making kinetic sculpture in the 1940s. Along with Alexander Calder, he became interested in the expressive potential of movement itself. However, while Calder's whimsical and biomorphic forms are influenced by Surrealism, Rickey's work is rooted in the geometric abstraction of Russian Constructivism. "Two Lines down Eighteen Feet" is simple and spare. Two elegant, tapered blades of stainless steel are balanced through a system of fulcrums, counterweights and bearings. Nature animates the work, with gravity and wind sending the arms into sweeping and graceful arcs. Light reflecting off brilliant steel surfaces adds to the dynamic sense of movement and flight.