A new exhibition titled "Freedom in Form: Richard Hunt" is on view at the Loyola University Museum of Art (LUMA) in Chicago through November 15. The show features over 160 works, including intimate sculptures and maquettes, offering a personal look at the late sculptor Richard Hunt, who died in December 2023. It originated at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, inspired by Illinois first lady MK Pritzker. The exhibition highlights Hunt's early life, his self-taught welding skills, and his pivotal experience attending Emmett Till's funeral in 1955, which shaped his commitment to civil rights and social justice through art.
This exhibition matters because Richard Hunt is the most prolific creator of public sculptures and monuments in the United States, yet this show provides a rare, intimate view of his personal journey and artistic evolution. It underscores how Hunt's lived experience—from his childhood in Chicago's South Side to his historic 1971 solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art—informed his groundbreaking work in welded metal sculpture. By focusing on his smaller pieces and biographical context, the exhibition deepens public understanding of an artist whose monumental works are widely seen but whose story is less known.