<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=4TSFA5_0wMWGOof00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=4TSFA5_0wMWGOof00" width="850" height="1024" ></figure>On Friday, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library &amp; Museum opened a new major exhibit honoring the late Chicago icon Richard Hunt, an African-American artist and activist globally renowned for his unique abstract and socially charged sculptures.The new exhibition, titled Freedom in Form: Richard Hunt will run until April 20, 2025. Prominently featured among the numerous items on display two major bookends to the sculptor’s life: the first is the 1956 piece Hero’s Head, which was inspired by Hunt’s experience attending the open-casket funeral of Emmett Till, a fellow Chicagoan who at age 14 was kidnapped, brutally murdered and mutilated in a lynching in Mississippi. The second piece is a model of a memorial to Till, on which Hunt was working prior to his passing.“I can’t think of a better way to honor Abraham Lincoln’s legacy than by opening an exhibition about freedom,” wrote Christina Shutt, executive director of the Lincoln Library &amp; Museum. “It presents the work of a visionary artist who was inspired by 400 years of pain and struggle, some of which connected directly to President Lincoln’s historic achievements.”The Museum’s official release regarding the exhibition noted, <blockquote>With 44 pieces, “Freedom in Form” is the first major Hunt exhibition in Illinois since his death last year. It includes the 22-foot-tall “Steel Garden” outside the museum, a gallery full of large- and medium-sized works and models of immense public sculptures around the country. The exhibition also gives visitors a peek into Hunt’s creative process by displaying his work clothes, tools and hundreds of books that inspired him.</blockquote>Richard Hunt, born September 12, 1935 and raised in the South Side neighborhood of Englewood, took a childhood passion for arts to the national stage in the 1950’s with works which captured the emotion of the Civil Rights movement. Following a tour of Europe after graduating from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, he gained world stardom for his revolutionary work with metal, which he held as a defining material of 20th century culture.Richard Hunt passed away December 16, 2023, at the age of 88. His career spanned seventy years, helping to define the aesthetic of Black art in America with his flowing, fiery, heartful metalwork, which now dots the streets and public squares of Chicago and towns throughout Illinois and 23 other states, and which resides in over 100 museums worldwide. Former President Barack Obama in 2022 deemed Hunt, “One of the greatest artists Chicago has ever produced.”The exhibition was produced by Lincoln Library &amp; Museum Exhibits and Shows Director Lance Tawzer with curation by Ross Stanton Jordan, curatorial manager at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum. It is accompanied by a hard-cover catalog with photographs of the featured art and essays about Hunt’s career.After its run at the Lincoln Library &amp; Museum, the exhibition will move to the Loyola University Museum of Art in Chicago. The project received cooperation from The Richard Hunt Trust, as well as the DePaul University Museum of Art, DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center, Illinois State Museum, Illinois Governor’s Mansion and the Richard Hunt Legacy Foundation.“An art exhibition of this scale is a new challenge for the ALPLM,” wrote Tawzer, “but we thought the idea was too good to pass up. We had an Illinois artist who built an international reputation exploring themes of race, justice and civil rights in America – basically, looking at where this nation stood 150 years after Abraham Lincoln wrestled with those same issues. We think people will be fascinated by this look at the intersection of art and history.”Admission to “Freedom in Form: Richard Hunt” is free with the regular admission price to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library &amp; Museum.</div></body>

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Exhibit of late sculptor Richard Hunt’s works opens at Lincoln Library & Museum

On Friday, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum opened a new major exhibit honoring the late Chicago icon Richard Hunt, an African-American artist and activist globally renowned for his unique abstract and socially charged sculptures. The new exhibition, titled Freedom in Form: Richard Hunt will run until April 20,...