Richard Hunt, an abstract sculptor who was born and raised in Chicago and who, in 1971, was the first African American artist to have a solo retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, passed away on Saturday at the age of 88.
Hunt’s website stated that he “passed away peacefully” at his Chicago residence. No cause was disclosed.
“Richard Hunt was a preeminent American sculptor and public artist with a remarkable career spanning 70 years,” said Charles Loving, author of a 2012 book on the artist. “His evocative works are immediately recognizable for melding the gritty muscularity of America’s industrial-urban environment with a passion for natural forms and biology.”
Large-scale public sculptures by the Chicago-born sculptor, who has been working in Lincoln Park since 1971 in a converted 1909 electrical substation, are his most well-known creations. He was in charge of 35 pieces in the Chicago region and placed more than 160 commissions of this kind across the country, including the 30-foot-wide hanging bronze piece “Swing Low” at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
President Barack Obama said in a statement on Saturday that Hunt’s sculpture, “Book Bird,” will “be an inspiration for visitors from around the world, and an enduring reminder of a remarkable man” and be placed outside the Obama Presidential Center’s new branch of the Chicago Public Library.
In 2014, ahead of his 80th birthday, Hunt was included in two exhibitions held in the Chicago area: “Richard Hunt: 60 Years of Sculpture,” a career survey held at the Chicago Cultural Centre, and a small showcase at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.
“His ability to put challenging, personal, abstract forms in a public setting,” Daniel Schulman, curator of the Cultural Center show, said at the time, “and to do it over a long period, and to do it freshly, and with the ability to engage the public in larger metaphorical issues, makes him a really important sculptor.”
Hunt’s vertical sculptures have a light, upward trajectory that alludes to transcendence and freedom. One such sculpture is the 55-foot-tall “And You Seas” in St. Joseph, Michigan. Concurrently, he created low-slung, horizontal pieces, like the 1976 bulldozer-inspired “Harlem Hybrid,” a commission for New York City that underwent restoration in 2008.
Hunt, who was raised on Chicago’s South Side and attended the Junior School of the Art Institute of Chicago as well as the South Side Community Art Centre, demonstrated artistic promise at a young age. He then enrolled at the Chicago School of Art Institute.
His reputation as an artist to watch was cemented when the Museum of Modern Art purchased one of his pieces while he was still a student. The New York Times wrote a glowing review of the mid-career retrospective that same museum held for him when he was just 35 years old.
The renowned 50-foot-tall Picasso sculpture that was placed in Daley Plaza in 1967 had a big impact on Hunt. Hunt selected that piece when the Sun-Times asked a number of Chicago curators and artists to name their favourite piece of public art in the Windy City in 2016.
Hunt was bestowed with eighteen honorary degrees and over thirty major awards, such as the International Sculpture Center’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the City of Chicago’s Fifth Star Award, and the Art Institute’s Legends and Legacy Award.
Plans for a private funeral are still pending. Chicago will host a free public celebration of his life and work in the spring.
