With his moving steel sculptures, George Rickey continued the development of the mobile, which began with the Bauhaus, Naum Gabo, and Alexander Calder. Today he is seen as one of the major proponent of kinetic art.
His sculptures have a levity which lets the viewer forget that they were developed on the basis of a great technical knowledge. The swinging, floating, gyrating, oscillating, ascending, descending, and vibrating of the elements takes place in a weightlessness making every breath of air visible and reflecting the interplay of light and shade. Thus, on one hand we find in Rickey's mobiles the transformation of nature into art, on the other hand he contrasts the natural environment, in which they are placed, with a technical and aesthetic aspect.
In 1960 Rickey moved into his studio in East Chatham, New York. Rickey's outdoor studio - the woods - just across the street from his home - over the years became populated with variants of his creations. The work "Three Squares Vertical Diagonal II" was part of the artist's own sculpture garden.
