Richard
Hunt
(1935-2023)
Sky Form
1958
welded steel
31 x 32 x 12 inches
signed and dated
Exhibited: Somewhere There's Music, An Exhibition Honoring Richard Howard Hunt; Visual Arts Gallery at Governors State University, August 24th-September 26th, 2015. University Park, IL.
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,” at the 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 Construction, 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, including drawings, screenprints, and lithographs.
His work was recently the subject of a major exhibition held at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, October 12, 2024 - March 2, 2025.
His work is represented by White Cube.
Photo by Robert Sengstacke (1943-2017)
Portrait of Richard Hunt, 2000; c-print, 19-1/2 x 13 inches (image), signed and dated
untitled, 1965 color lithograph 15 x 15-1/8 inches (sheet) signed, with AP
untitled, c. 1975 color lithograph 22 x 29-1/2 inches (image), full margins signed, with A/P
untitled, 1973 lithograph 10 x 7 inches (image), full margins signed and dated
Jumping Off Place, 1985 color lithograph 40-1/16 x 30-1/4 inches signed and inscribed, RTP (edition of 75)
untitled, c. 1965 lithograph 15 x 15 inches signed, with artist's proof
untitled, 1965 lithograph 30-1/4 x 22-1/2 inches signed and numbered 5/20 This image is included in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art.
untitled, 1965 lithograph on cream wove paper 30-1/8 x 22-1/4 inches signed with artist's proof This image is included in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art.
untitled, 1990 oil stick on cream paper 29 x 39 inches (image) signed and dated
untitled, c. 1965 color lithograph 15 x 15 inches signed, with artist's proof
untitled, c. 1965 lithograph 15-1/4 x 22-1/2 inches signed and numbered 35/50 blind stamp
untitled, c. 1965 lithograph 30 x 22 inches signed and numbered 41/50 stamp on verso Landfall Press, Chicago, Illinois
untitled, c. 1965 lithograph 21-3/4 x 30 inches signed and numbered 39/50
untitled, c. 1965 lithograph on cream wove paper 22 x 30 inches signed and numbered 39/50
untitled, c. 1965 lithograph on cream wove paper 22 x 30 inches signed and numbered, 9/20
Selected Exhibitions
Solo & Group
Richard Hunt, Milwaukee Art Center, WI. first museum retrospective, 1967
Afro-American Artists Since 1950, Brooklyn College Art Gallery, NY, 1969
The Sculpture of Richard Hunt. Landmark MoMA retrospective; the first for an African American sculptor. Traveled to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1971
Thirty Years of American Printmaking, Brooklyn Museum of Art, NY, 1977
The Appropriate Object, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, 1989
Richard Hunt: Sixty Years of Sculpture, Chicago Cultural Center, 2014-15
Richard Hunt: Framed and Extended, Works on paper in dialogue with sculpture Studio Museum in Harlem, 2016-17
Richard Hunt: Scholar’s Rock or Stone of Hope or Love of Bronze, Monumental terrace presentation. Art Institute of Chicago, 2020-21
Richard Hunt: Early Masterworks, most significant New York showing since MoMA 1971, focusing on 1955–1969, White Cube, NY, 2024
Richard Hunt: From Paper to Metal, Amon Carter Museum of Art, Fort Worth, TX, Prints from his 1965 Tamarind residency with a 1968 sculpture, 2024-25
Freedom in Form: Richard Hunt, Loyola University Museum of Art, Chicago, IL, (Jul 11–Nov 15, 2025),
Natural Form No. 2, 1966 welded chromed steel 14 x 23 x 8 inches signed and dated. Exhibited: Somewhere There's Music, An Exhibition Honoring Richard Howard Hunt; Visual Arts Gallery at Governors State University, August 24th-September 26th, 2015. University Park, IL.
untitled, Wall piece
1961
welded chromed steel
46 x 16 x 10 inches
signed and dated on interior; conjoined initials on exterior
Exhibited: Somewhere There's Music, An Exhibition Honoring Richard Howard Hunt; Visual Arts Gallery at Governors State University, August 24th-September 26th, 2015. University Park, IL.
Monument No. 2
1964
welded and chromed steel
45 x 10 x 7 inches
signed and dated
Exhibited: Somewhere There's Music, An Exhibition Honoring Richard Howard Hunt; Visual Arts Gallery at Governors State University, August 24th-September 26th, 2015. University Park, IL.
untitled,
Hybrid Form
1974
cast bronze
65 x 24 x 18 inches
signed and dated with AP
Exhibited: Somewhere There's Music, An Exhibition Honoring Richard Howard Hunt; Visual Arts Gallery at Governors State University, August 24th-September 26th, 2015. University Park, IL.
untitled
c. 1979
cast bronze
7-1/2 x 4 x 2-1/2 inches
signed and numbered, 3/10