Richard Hunt (1935-2023)

For more than seven decades Richard Hunt’s status as the foremost African-American abstract sculptor and artist of public sculpture has remained unchallenged. Executed in welded and cast steel, aluminum, copper, and bronze, Hunt’s abstract creations make frequent references to plant, human, and animal forms.

Hunt grew up in the South Side of Chicago and attended art classes at the historic South Side Community Center and the Junior School of the Art Institute of Chicago. As an enrolled student at the Art Institute of Chicago, he taught himself to weld, and the Museum of Modern Art purchased his sculpture, Arachne.

Since then, Hunt’s work has been exhibited extensively. His first public commission was completed in 1959. His most recent public commission, The Light of Truth, Ida B. Wells National Monument, was unveiled in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood.   Throughout his career, Hunt has created Swing Low for the National Museum of African American History and Culture; I Have Been to the Mountaintop, MLK Memorial, Memphis; Hero Constuction, Art Institute of Chicago; Spiral Odyssey, Romare Bearden Park, Charlotte, NC, among others.

Although Hunt’s name is widely recognized and regarded as ubiquitous in the field of sculpture, he also produced a variety of remarkable works on paper, which include drawings, screenprints, and lithographs.

Currently, his work is the subject of a major exhibition being held at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, October 12, 2024 - March 2, 2025.

His work is represented by White Cube.