Throughout his career, Hunt was central to important landmarks in African American art history and Civil Rights-era action.

 

Hunt’s work often ties together historical and contemporary references all the while creating historically-based artwork that conflates local and African diasporic themes and design elements.

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His unique approach to the conception and construction of sophisticated forms calls upon aspects of storytelling and memory with objects that emphasize fluidity, movement, migration, and change.

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“Hunt’s creative and seemingly spiritual connection to his African American heritage situates him as an inheritor of the African creative traditions that influenced modernism and its best-known European artists,” says Mary Miller, director of the Getty Research Institute. “Both sculptor and print maker, Hunt’s collection of models, maquettes, sculptural objects, sketchbooks, related works on paper, studio notebooks, and photographs relate closely to the GRI’s core collections sectors and areas of curatorial expertise, both in terms of subject matter and media.”

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Hunt maintained an illustrious and formidable career trajectory spanning his earliest works in the 1950s to today. Executed in welded and cast steel, aluminum, copper, and bronze, Hunt’s abstract creations make frequent references to plant, human, and animal forms as well as classical music, traditional African American spirituals, and African and African American history and mythology.

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“Richard Hunt is one of the foremost American artists of the mid- to late-20th century,” says LeRonn Brooks, associate curator for modern and contemporary collections. “In addition to the extensive archival material pertaining to Hunt’s over 60-year career, a great deal of this archive consists of material highlighting his significance as a public figure and his eminent role in the African American community, as well as correspondence with government leaders, clients, other prominent artists, and African American leaders of his time including John H. Johnson of the Johnson Publishing Company. In all, the Richard Hunt archive represents a significant and substantial addition to the emerging collections related to the African American Art History Initiative (AAAHI) and the study of African American art during the 20th century.”

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In addition to his acclaimed career as a fine art sculptor, Hunt was one of the most prolific and significant creators of public art in the US, with 160 public sculpture commissions gracing prominent locations in 24 states. Hunt sculpted monuments for notable figures, including Martin Luther King, Jr., Mary McLeod Bethune, Carl Sandburg, and Hobart Taylor, Jr., and recently completed a major monument for Ida B. Wells.

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The archive, estimated at approximately 800 linear feet, contains detailed notes and correspondence, notebooks, sketchbooks, photographic documentation, financial records, research, ephemera, blueprints, posters, drawings, and lithographs, as well as a selection of wax models for public sculptures. At the heart of the archive are Hunt’s project files which contain complete records on every commission, project, exhibition, and body of work that Hunt has produced. Hundreds of sketches and drawings capture Hunt’s thought processes as ideas developed, and technical drawings, blueprints, and correspondence note the complex logistics of fabrication, of obtaining necessary city approvals, and of integrating public artworks into architectural spaces designed to serve many different communities and publics. Many of Hunt’s sculptures have been carefully photographed and his files document their placement in public and private collections throughout the United States and abroad.

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The archive also documents Hunt’s lectures, and his service on many prestigious councils and juries, including the jury for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The archive includes a small number of audiovisual materials, including documentation of Hunt’s projects and recordings from a classical music series that Hunt held at his studio from the late 1970s through the 1990s. Though the archive primarily focuses on Hunt’s professional career, there are several boxes of personal and family archival collections, including photo albums and correspondence.

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In addition to his sculptural practice, Hunt maintained a parallel practice as a printmaker, most often producing lithographs. The archive includes more than 100 prints, as well as a selection of larger drawings and sketches.

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Source: Getty Research Institute (GRI) Press Release, October 17, 2022

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GRI: Building a More Inclusive Archive With the African American Art History Initiative

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GRI: African American Art History Initiative