Two Open Rectangles Excentric

Date

1977

Creator

Maquettes provided an important tool for testing this excentric motion. In 1977 Rickey created Two Rectangles, Open Excentric, which would serve as a model for another work from 1977, Two Open Rectangles Excentric, itself a study. In both models, two long rectangles circle around a central armature…In these explorations of motion, Rickey regularly negotiated the seeming dichotomy between nature and the machine. For example, the large stainless steel sculpture for which Two Open Rectangles Excentric was a study was designed to sit in the landscape or in a sculpture courtyard with the sky on the horizon, so that the movement of the sculpture within nature and the movement of nature as a backdrop would conflate into one lyrical scene. While the reflection of sunlight and the surroundings on the metal further integrates such sculptures into the environment, the sharp flicker of silver with each shift calls attention to their mechanistic roots in stainless steel. from Kephart, Passages of Light and Time: George Rickey's Life in Motion (Notre Dame, 2009)