Richard Hunt was a Chicago-based sculptor whose work has reshaped public spaces with over 160 pieces displayed in 24 states, and who was called “one of the greatest artists [the city] has ever produced” by President Barack Obama.
- Died: December 16, 2023 (Who else died on December 16?)
- Details of death: Died in Chicago at the age of 88.
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Richard Hunt’s legacy
Hunt was drawn to the arts from a young age, in part thanks to his mother, who would take him to local opera productions. He drew and painted, and by his teen years began to show a particular affinity for sculpture. In eighth grade, Hunt took classes at the Art Institute of Chicago’s Junior School of the Arts, then enrolled at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago after graduating high school.
Hunt’s work took a shift when he attended Emmett Till’s open-casket funeral in 1955. Till had grown up just a few blocks from where Hunt lived, and the visible scars left by Till’s lynching deeply influenced Hunt’s artistic development. He explored the experience through welded sculpture, and his future work took on a renewed sense of social and political awareness.
Hunt began to have his work on public display in the 1960s. In 1962, he became the youngest artist to have work shown at the Seattle World’s Fair. In 1967, he received his first public commission, a work called “Play” done for the State of Illinois Public Art Program. It began a career filled with works for public display, spanning over 160 pieces in 24 states, more than any other sculptor to date.
Hunt’s work has also been featured in museums across the world. In 2014, the Chicago Cultural Center honored his work with its Sixty Years of Sculpture presentation. In 2022, President Barack Obama commissioned his talents for the Barack Obama Presidential Center. That same year, a 350-page book of his work titled simply “Richard Hunt” was released.
Hunt was the first Black sculptor to have a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and his work has appeared there a dozen times since. He was also the first Black visual artist to serve on the National Council on the Arts, and he has received dozens of awards and honorary degrees for his work, spanning from the 1950s to his final years. The Getty Research Institute called him “one of the foremost American artists of the mid- to late-20th century.”
Notable quote
“I have always been interested in the concept of freedom on the personal and universal levels: political freedom, freedom to think and to feel. As an African American living in the United States, obviously issues like segregation laws, the civil rights movement in the 1960s or South Africa have been on my mind when I have dealt with the concept of freedom. But freedom also relates to my career as an artist: freedom of mind, thought and imagination.”—from the Museum of Modern Art 1971 exhibit, “The Sculpture of Richard Hunt”
Tributes to Richard Hunt
Full obituary: The New York Times
