Richard Hunt
1935–2023

Richard Howard Hunt (September 12, 1935 – December 16, 2023) was an American artist and sculptor. In the second half of the 20th century, he became "the foremost African-American abstract sculptor and artist of public sculpture." A Chicago native, Hunt studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the 1950s. While there he received multiple prizes for his work. In 1971, he was the first African-American sculptor to have a retrospective at Museum of Modern Art. Hunt has created over 160 public sculpture commissions, more than any other sculptor in prominent locations in 24 states across the United States.

With a career spanning seven decades, Hunt held over 170 solo exhibitions and is represented in more than 125 public museums across the world. His notable abstract, modern and contemporary sculpture and works on paper have appeared in museum and gallery exhibitions since the 1950s. Richard Hunt used “industrial materials and modern methods to sculpt organic forms and historical archetypes, such as freedom, flight, and progress” throughout his career.

He was one of the first artists to serve on the governing body for National Endowment for the Arts and later served on the board of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. In 2022, Barack Obama stated that "Richard Hunt is one of the greatest artists Chicago has ever produced."