Richard Hunt Sculptor

Richard Hunt Sculptor The Richard Hunt Legacy Foundation advances public awareness, education, and appreciation of the life and art of American sculptor Richard Hunt.

Richard Hunt's "Construction N" is a seminal work from his Construction [Letter] series that adeptly combines both natur...
05/19/2026

Richard Hunt's "Construction N" is a seminal work from his Construction [Letter] series that adeptly combines both natural and manmade elements. The first in the series, the sculpture ingeniously combines cottonwood salvaged from a local Chicago park after a heavy storm with welded steel, embodying Hunt's early and innovative approach to materials and form.

"Construction N" (1956)
Welded steel and cottonwood
38 x 26 x 25 in. (96.5 x 66 x 63.5 cm)
© 2026 The Richard Hunt Estate / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo © On White Wall

We are honored that Richard Hunt is included in Time magazine's "25 Works of Art That Define America Now," with Theaster...
05/04/2026

We are honored that Richard Hunt is included in Time magazine's "25 Works of Art That Define America Now," with Theaster Gates selecting "Hero's Head" as Hunt's important iconic work. "As this nation marks its long-unfinished experiment with freedom, Richard Hunt is a testament to the complexity of Americanness."
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04/24/2026

Happy Richard Hunt Day from the Richard Hunt Legacy Foundation!

Learn more about Richard Hunt's art and life by subscribing to our newsletter (https://f.mtr.cool/rargbygacf


© 2026 The Richard Hunt Estate / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. Photo Sandro Miller

04/24/2026

Happy Richard Hunt Day from the Richard Hunt Legacy Foundation!

Learn more about Richard Hunt's art and life by subscribing to our newsletter (link in bio).


© 2026 The Richard Hunt Estate / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. Photo Sandro Miller

Richard Hunt's sculptures, "Hybrid Muse" (1985) and "Steel Bloom, Number 1" (1956), are on view through June at the The ...
04/14/2026

Richard Hunt's sculptures, "Hybrid Muse" (1985) and "Steel Bloom, Number 1" (1956), are on view through June at the The Peninsula Chicago's "Confluence" exhibition, curated by Dara Pizzuti and Chanelle Lacy, Director of Art Initiatives, Gertie.

On Left: "Hybrid Muse" (1985), cast bronze, 19.5 x 8 x 6 in.
On Right: "Steel Bloom, Number 1" (1956), welded steel, 18 x 7 x 7 in.
Collection of the DePaul Art Museum
© 2026 The Richard Hunt Estate / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

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The Richard Hunt Legacy Foundation has released the first posthumous Artist’s CV for Richard Hunt, including newly disco...
04/07/2026

The Richard Hunt Legacy Foundation has released the first posthumous Artist’s CV for Richard Hunt, including newly discovered solo exhibitions (now totaling 193), more than 350 never-before documented group exhibitions, expanded awards and professional activities, and a bibliography from its digital archives.

“This research doesn’t just fill a gap in understanding Richard Hunt’s career as a sculptor; it fundamentally shifts the lens through which we view Richard Hunt’s legacy and his place in art history,” says Jon Ott, executive director of the Richard Hunt Legacy Foundation.

Curators and scholars are encouraged to explore Hunt's extensive career and impact on art history in his new CV at richardhuntsculptor.org/artists-cv



Richard Hunt with Longhorn (1959) at Mill Race Studio, San Antonio © 2026 The Richard Hunt Estate / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. Photo: Martha Mood

Unlike carving stone or wood, where material is taken away to reveal a form, Richard Hunt's direct-metal welding was a d...
03/31/2026

Unlike carving stone or wood, where material is taken away to reveal a form, Richard Hunt's direct-metal welding was a dynamic, additive process characterized by "ceaseless flux," infusing life into every work.



© 2026 The Richard Hunt Estate / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

03/24/2026

Richard Hunt’s "Linear Spatial Theme, Number 1" (1962), the centerpiece of his 1971 retrospective at , is now on view at in the artist's first posthumous U.S. institutional survey. Created with discarded automobile parts and salvaged chromed steel table and chair legs, the sculpture is the largest and most ambitiously abstracted work in the artist’s celebrated “Hero" series.

By welding rigid, machine-made remnants into elegant traceries, Hunt achieved a dynamic, linear-spatial aesthetic, creating a three-dimensional “drawing in space.” Art critic Hilton Kramer noted: “The imagery of these earlier sculptures had the airiness and spontaneity of a magnificent abstract drawing by a master calligrapher.”

This is the final week to see “Linear Spatial Theme, Number 1” in “Richard Hunt: Pressure” at ICA Miami.
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“Linear Spatial Theme, Number 1” (1962). Welded chromed steel. 84 x 43 x 35 in. Collection of Glenstone. All rights reserved © 2026 The Richard Hunt Legacy Foundation. © 2026 The Richard Hunt Estate / Artists Rights Society, NY and DACS London. Photos courtesy of White Cube © On White Wall. MoMA installation image by Alexandre Georges © The Museum of Modern Art, SCALA/Art Resource, NY.

03/17/2026

Richard Hunt's "Untitled" (1957) was created during his senior year at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and was his most ambitious work of that period. Hunt was inspired by Pablo Picasso and Julio González’s collaborative iron work "Woman in the Garden" (1929–30), a tribute to the Surrealist poet Guillaume Apollinaire. “Untitled” parallels its composition and geometry.

Characterized by a strong sense of ascension, Hunt’s sculpture rises on slender legs, culminating in sharp, biomorphic blades. By utilizing modular, Cubist-inspired planes, he created a dynamic tension between solid mass and open linear form. The work’s critical success earned Hunt the James Nelson Raymond Foreign Travelling Fellowship, leading him to the Marinelli Foundry in Florence, Italy, where he formally studied casting techniques that would define his work of the 1960s and 1970s.

See "Untitled" in "Richard Hunt: Pressure" at ICA Miami, on view through March 29.

"Untitled" (1957). Welded steel. 84 ¾ × 43 × 72 in. All rights reserved © 2026 The Richard Hunt Legacy Foundation. Narrated by LeRonn P. Brooks. © 2026 The Estate of Pablo Picasso and Richard Hunt Estate / Artists Rights Society, NY and DACS London. Photos courtesy of White Cube © On White Wall

03/03/2026

“Opposed Forms” (1965) is a masterful expression of Richard Hunt's hybrid aesthetic–an ambiguous, biomorphic form that feels part machine, part insect, and part science fiction. The work captures the exact moment where Hunt’s signature linear-spatial traceries collide with heavier, enclosed volumetric masses, evoking a creature balanced delicately on three chromed-steel legs.

The sculpture proudly bears the metaphorical "scars of battle"—displaying dents, splits of distended metal, visible welded seams, trails of the grinder, and brilliant blue-bronze iridescent plumes left behind by the searing heat of his oxyacetylene torch. This dynamic tension between the reflective shine of chrome and the raw, unpolished marks of its creation gives the work a profound psychological edge reminiscent of Surrealism.

“Opposed Forms” is on view in “Richard Hunt: Pressure” at ICA Miami through March 29.
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“Opposed Forms” (1965). Welded chromed steel. 44 ½ x 61 x 39 in. All rights reserved © 2026 The Richard Hunt Legacy Foundation. © 2026 The Richard Hunt Estate / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. Photos courtesy of White Cube © On White Wall

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