kinetic art, term referring to sculptured works that include motion as a significant dimension. The form was pioneered by Marcel Duchamp, Naum Gabo, and Alexander Calder. Kinetic art is either nonmechanical, e.g., Calder's mobiles, or mechanical, e.g., works by Gabo, László Moholy-Nagy, and Jean Tinguely. The latter sort of kineticism developed in response to an increasingly technological culture. Artists who pursued kinetic art in the late 20th cent. include the German Otto Piene, some of whose works were made with grids and moving lamps, fire, or smoke; the American George Rickey, who created small to monumental sculptures of delicately balanced pieces of metal; and the Greek artist Takis, who made art that moved with electricity, magnetism, light, and sound.
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