1963.100.FA Rickey, U.N. II

Although George Rickey worked as a painter in his youth, as early as the 1930s he was attracted to Alexander Calder's sculpture and its incorporation of movement. After World War II, he shifted to sculpture and devoted his artistic career to experimenting with motion in sculpture. Unlike Calder's works, Rickey's sculptures do not refer to natural forms. Rather, they play with the complex possibilities of mechanical movement and technology. U.N. II is from a series of works Rickey began in the early 1950s that converts the flat plane of a painting into the three-dimensional form of sculpture. The U.N. group refers to the newly built United Nations Secretariat building in New York, while a similar "Homage to Mondrian" series refers to Mondrian's geometric abstractions.

U.N. II is a complicated construction: the whole upper frame, the "painting" so to speak, is suspended on a small black crossbar mounted on the base, which itself is composed of rectangles moving against each other. The curved bars, or rotors, mounted on the frame have individual movements of their own. Rickey was interested in indeterminate movement, where no clear pattern can be predicted by the viewer. In addition to the motion caused by air currents, a visitor's breath or movement will also cause slightly different motions. The gently modulated colors–teal, rose, aquamarine, lemon, dull crimson, sky blue–add to the shimmering richness of this abstract tapestry of motion. Rickey's sculptures are always open to the air, and endlessly varied in the relation of their moving parts.

stainless steel: AAT: 300010920

paint (coating): AAT: 300015029

twentieth century (dates CE): AAT: 300404514

abstract (general art genre): AAT: 300417511

air (material): AAT: 300213004

color (perceived attribute): AAT: 300056130

frames (for object): AAT: 300189814

geometric abstraction: AAT: 300056509

motion (dynamics/mechanics concepts): AAT: 300055907

rectangles (parallelograms): AAT: 300055636

sculpture: AAT: 300047090

technology: AAT: 300056069

By 1960: Kraushaar Galleries, New York

1960-1963: Dallas Museum for Contemporary Arts, purchased from above

From 1963: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Foundation for the Arts Collection, transferred from the above, May 30, 1963 [1], [2], [3]

The main source for this provenance is the Foundation for the Arts collection record Information Sheet, copy in Dallas Museum of Art Collections Records object file.

[1] Pursuant to the April 19, 1963 Agreement of Merger between the Dallas Association and the Dallas Museum for Contemporary Arts (DMCA), the collection of the Dallas Museum for Contemporary Arts was transferred to the Foundation for the Arts.

[2]  The name of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1933, was changed to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983.

[3]  The Foundation for the Arts is a non-profit corporation created as a title-holding entity to serve the people of Dallas but to operate independently of the City. The Dallas Museum of Art (at its own cost) is responsible for the care, storage, insurance, conservation and maintenance of the collection, and agrees to maintain the highest museum standards in the management and handling of the Foundation’s collection. The title to all works of art purchased or otherwise acquired by the Foundation for the Arts is retained by the Foundation.

AUDIO ASSETS

VIDEO ASSETS

Apply to objects where number equals 1963.100.FA