Richard Hunt in his Chicago Studio
Image: The Chicago Tribune
Chicago is celebrating sculptor Richard Hunt’s long and highly successful career—and his 80th birthday—with two new exhibitions: Richard Hunt: 60 Years of Sculpture at the Chicago Cultural Center (through March 29) and MCA DNA: Richard Hunt at the Museum of Contemporary Art (through May 17).
Best known for his monumental works of public art, Hunt has completed numerous commissions throughout the city and the nation. Chicagoans are perhaps most familiar with Hunt’s Flight Forms (2001) at Midway Airport, We Will (2005) on Randolph Street near the Chicago Cultural Center, and Eagle Columns (1989) in Jonquil Park.
In 1971, Richard Hunt became the first African-American sculptor accorded a retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Throughout the years he has received Guggenheim, Ford and Tamarind fellowships, Logan, Palmer, and Compana prizes from the Art Institute of Chicago, and in 2009 was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Sculpture Center. Mr. Hunt holds 14 honorary degrees, and his work is represented in major museums and collections internationally.
To see Mr. Hunt in conversation with Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago Curator Naomi Beckwith at the museum on Tuesday, February 10, read more here.
Richard Hunt, Eagle Columns, 1989.
This sculpture by Richard Hunt commemorates two Chicagoans of the 1890’s, Illinois Governor John Peter Altgert, who pardoned three anarchists convicted of violence during the Haymarket Square riots in 1886, and Poet Vachel Lindsay. It is located in Chicago near the intersection of Wrightwood, Sheffield and Lincoln Avenues.
This sculpture by Richard Hunt is presented on a pedestal and incorporated into our Astor Street Project. For more of this residence, click here.