TCC Sculpture Blog: Richard Hunt

Richard Hunt was born in 1935 on the south side of Chicago. Hunt began his career in sculpture in 1955. It was then, while he was still a student, that hunt began to exhibit sculpture around Chicago in all sorts of places, such as: art fairs, small galleries, local art centers, and more. During the twelve years that followed, Hunt's sculptural development grew as a private, independent, studio-based, and self-generated activity that responded to the stimuli he could supply and the skills he was able to master.

In 1967, I began work on Play, a commissioned sculpture which his studio was not able to accommodate. At this time he started to work on sculpture outside of his studio for the first time.He would work on a time and material basis in a metal fabrication shop, with the help of other men and machines. Richard Hunt says that his work on Play is what has essentially brought him to his second career, that of a public sculptor.

Hunt describes sculpture today by saying, "Public sculpture responds to the dynamics of a community, or of those in it, who have a use for sculpture. It is this aspect of use, of utility, that gives public sculpture its vital and lively place in the public mind. The challenges utility brings to the sculptor’s mind and art, are as varied as the people and the sites encountered with each commission. As sculptors in our time respond creatively to the challenges that the opportunities for the greater utilization of sculpture impose, we establish links with the greatest traditions in sculpture, and with the largest and most diverse audience sculpture has ever had."

(http://chicagoartmagazine.com/2010/09/thnkart-salon-presents-richard-hunt/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hunt_(sculptor))