George Rickey
George Rickey, 1972 or 1973
Photographer: unknown
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
George Rickey was born in Indiana in 1907 but grew up in Scotland after his family relocated there in 1913 to accommodate his father’s work. Rickey studied painting and drawing at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art while taking a history degree at Oxford. He then travelled to Paris where he furthered his interest in art at the Académie Lhote and the Académie Moderne. He returned to the United States where he taught for a short time at the Groton School in Massachusetts before settling in New York in 1933.
At this time Rickey’s art practice was centred upon painting, however by the early 1950s he had begun to experiment with the kind of kinetic sculpture that earned him fame. In 1965 Rickey worked at Gemini Ltd to create the lithograph Untitled, intended as a design for a later sculptural work.
Emilie Owens
Works in the Kenneth E. Tyler Collection
Chronology
1907 Born South Bend, Indiana, United States of America
1913 Moves to Helensburgh, Scotland
1926-29 Studies History at Balliol College, Oxford, England
1928-29 Studies at Ruskin School of Drawing, Oxford
1929-30 Studies at Académie André Lhote and Académie Moderne, Paris under Fernand Lèger and Amédée Ozenfant
1930-33 Teaches English and History, Groton School, Boston, United States of America
1933 Returns to England
1934-37 Lives in New York, New York
1937 Receives Carnegie Grant to complete residency in Olivet, Michigan
1939-40 Director, Kalamazoo Institute of the Arts, Michigan
1940-41 Receives Carnegie Grant to complete residency at Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois
1941-48 Professor of Art, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pennsylvania
1942-45 Serves as a gunnery instructor in US Army Air Corps
1945-46 Studies Art History, New York University, New York
1948-49 Studies at the Institute of Design, Chicago as part of GI Bill program
1949 Begins to experiment with sculpture. Returns to Europe for six months
1953 First solo exhibition of sculpture, John Herron Art Museum, Indianapolis
1955-60 Professor of Art, Tulane University, New Orleans
1960 Receives John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship
1961-65 Professor of Art, Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York
1964 Included in Documenta 3, Kassel, West Germany
1965 Completes edition, Untitled, at Gemini Ltd., Los Angeles
1966 Visiting artist, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire
1967 Writes book, Constructivism: origins and evolution (New York: G. Braziller,)
1968-69 Receives grant, Deutschen Akademischen Austauschdienstes, West Berlin
1972 Receives American Institute of Architects Fine Arts Medal
1975 Receives Sculpture Award from Indiana Arts Commission
1991 Solo exhibition, Snite Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame, Indiana
1997 BBC films documentary, The Moving World of George Rickey, directed by Kevin Macdonald
1999 Solo exhibition, Within the poetry of motion: George Rickey, Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, Virginia Beach
2000 Solo exhibition, Maxwell Davidson Gallery, New York
2002 George Rickey died in St. Paul, Minnesota, United States of America
This chronology provides an overview of selected biographical information, major solo and group exhibitions held within the artist's own lifetime.
Further Reading
NATIONAL GALLERY PUBLICATIONS
- Workshop: The Kenneth Tyler Collection, Jane Kinsman (ed.), 2015
RELATED LINKS
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