Three Columns (1989)

The Artwork

A few hundred meters apart, two kinetic sculptures by George Rickey stand in downtown Rotterdam. A lot of water flowed through the Maas River before the first Rickey was in place. In 1964, he was asked to design an alternative to the fountain on Hofplein. His twenty-meter-high construction was ultimately not executed because the fountain’s new foundation would be too expensive. Eventually, Rickey’s Two Turning Vertical Rectangles was placed to brighten the newly designed Binnenwegplein.

Three Columns is Rickey’s second sculpture for Rotterdam. It was a gift from the company Van Ommeren (now Royal Vopak) to the municipality on the occasion of the firm’s 150th anniversary. In 1986, Rickey was approached by his old friend, art connoisseur and collector prof. mr. P. Sanders to exchange views on the filling of three square steel frames above the entrance to the new building designed by architect Wim Quist for the Rotterdam Schouwburg. It turned out to be a task that took Rickey about 3 years to solve. When the Schouwburg was completed in 1989, Rickey’s broken, moving columns were installed in the open cube forms above the building’s entrance. Rickey once said that his works can be seen as choreographies. In that sense, too, they will feel at home on the theater’s facade.