Construction (1951–52) belongs to George Rickey’s earliest experiments with kinetic sculpture, marked by his use of polychrome steel and suspended, mobile-like structures. Its sharply tapered black, white and red elements, punctured by open circular forms, are carefully counterbalanced around a system of levers and fulcrums, so that even slight changes in the environment set the composition into changing configurations. Rickey allowed natural forces to animate the work, carefully distributing weight so that each element followed a controlled but never entirely predictable trajectory. Executed shortly after his 1951 visit to Alexander Calder’s studio, the work reveals Rickey working through the language of the mobile while already developing his own more analytical approach to movement, balance and engineering. The bright polychrome surfaces also mark this as an early phase in his practice, before he increasingly abandoned applied colour in favour of stainless steel and the changing reflections of the surrounding environment.

George Rickey (1907–2002) was one of the leading figures in twentieth-century kinetic sculpture. Born in South Bend, Indiana, and raised partly in Scotland, he first trained as a painter before turning to sculpture after the Second World War. From the 1950s onward, he became known for works made from carefully balanced metal elements that move in response to air, gravity and changes in the surrounding environment. His sculptures combine precise engineering with simple geometric forms and constant movement. Rickey exhibited widely in the United States and Europe, with major solo exhibitions at institutions including the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; and the Nationalgalerie, Berlin. His work is held in more than 150 museum collections worldwide, including The Museum of Modern Art and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the National Gallery of Art and Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; National Galleries of Scotland; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam; and Kunstmuseum Bern.