Innovation: George Rickey Kinetic Sculpture, Brochure —December 2009
Major, community-wide projects such as Innovation are only possible when multiple organizations join together to share a vision. Because of the strength of its core partnerships—the Community Foundation of St. Joseph County’s ArtsEverywhere initiative, South Bend Museum of Art, Snite Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame, 1st Source Bank, the George Rickey Estate and the George Rickey Foundation—and the invaluable support of the City of South Bend, Innovation grew from an inspiration to reality, with exhibitions, events, and educational programs taking place throughout our community during 2009 and 2010.
Where art and engineering meet —from ArtsEverywhere magazine, May 2009
-from South Bend Tribune, September 19, 2009
by Andrew S. Hughes
“Innovation: George Rickey Kinetic Sculpture” doesn't officially open until Saturday's all-day Art Beat event in downtown South Bend.
For a tantalizing preview, though, all you have to do is walk down Michigan Street this week.
Be prepared, however, to spend some time at it.
As of Thursday night, three of the exhibition's five large-scale works had been installed, and their fluid, unpredictable movements have the power to transfix viewers.
At the corner of Jefferson Boulevard and Michigan at about 7:20 p.m. Thursday, for example, a strong breeze kept “Two Rectangles Horizontal Jointed Gyratory” in continuous motion as its two stainless steel rectangles each spun on its own axis, pivoting away from and toward each other in a graceful kaleidoscope of lines and shapes. As the wind shifted direction or velocity, the sculpture's rectangles reacted accordingly, just as Rickey intended.
Read more...
Collaboration and Innovation —from ArtsEverywhere magazine, August 2009
by Andrew S. Hughes
Abstract sculpture, unlike representational art, can be hard to love. Some viewers find abstract sculpture inaccessible, and response to the work of artists such as Mark di Suvero, David Smith, and Seymour Lipton often descends—justly or not—to the level of Is it art?
That’s not the case with the work of George Rickey, one of the world’s most prominent kinetic sculptors. A South Bend native who was the son of a Singer Sewing Machine mechanical engineer and the grandson of a clockmaker, Rickey connected his knowledge of engineering to the art world and created sculptures with inarguable universal appeal. They’re sleek, stainless steel pieces that move with the wind, reflecting flashes of sunlight as they form and reform. Rickey’s sculptures are enticing; they draw you into their own sense of time and space. Read more...
Why Rickey? Why Now? —from ArtsEverywhere magazine, May 2009
Coinciding with the start of South Bend’s 2009 Art Beat celebration, a treasure trove of beautiful stainless steel sculptures will appear on the streets of downtown. I promise that you won’t miss them: Each stands between 12 and 20 feet high, and, as you watch, you’ll notice that they move, gently, with the wind, their shiny metal surfaces reflecting flashes of sunlight back at you.
You’re looking at Innovation.