The prolific Black sculptor Richard Hunt, who died a 12 months in the past this month, got here of age in the course of the Civil Rights Motion of the Fifties and ‘60s. He was born a few blocks away from 14-year-old Emmett Until’s childhood house in Chicago’s Woodlawn neighborhood, and at 19 years previous, he attended Until’s open-casket funeral.
Hunt used his artwork to precise themes of racial trauma, grief and Black liberation. Former President Barack Obama referred to as him one of many “most interesting artists ever to come back out of Chicago.” He mentioned he and former first girl Michelle Obama are “eternally grateful” that one in every of Hunt’s works will sit exterior the Obama Presidential Middle in Jackson Park.
Hunt was additionally a public artwork pioneer, with greater than 160 commissioned items throughout the nation — together with a number of sculptures in downtown Chicago.
A few of Hunt’s summary metallic creations are actually on show on the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield. The exhibit will run by April 2025.
WBEZ’s Mawa Iqbal spent a current afternoon with Jon Ott, a biographer and shut buddy of Hunt’s. Ott takes us by the exhibit, beginning with a bit memorializing Until and ending with a maquette, or tough draft, of a sculpture commemorating Until as a hero.
Mawa Iqbal covers state authorities and politics for WBEZ. Comply with @mawa_iqbal.
