Sold at Auction: George Warren Rickey

(born 1907; died 2002) American sculptor. George Warren Rickey was born in South Bend, Indiana in 1907, but was raised primarily in Scotland, after his father was relocated there by his company, Singer Sewing Machine in 1913. He received a European education, studying history in Scotland and at Oxford. During his studies at Oxford, Rickey discovered the Ruskin School of Drawing, and gave up playing football for his college to study art part-time. Rickey then decided to pursue art and studied at the Academie Lhote in Paris. In 1964, he returned to the U.S. and taught at various schools and colleges. During the Second World War, Rickey joined the Army Air Corps. It was during this time that he gained engineering experience which would have a great impact on his future artistic endeavors. In 1948, back from the war, Rickey studied art at the Chicago Institute of Design. He is best known for his “Kinetic Art” sculptures which were sculptures that moved free of motors and power. These sculptures were often made of polished aluminum parts that would swing around a fulcrum in the breeze. Later in his life he was based in East Chatham, New York.