Bill Text: IL HR0799 | 2011-2012 | 97th General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Honors Richard Howard Hunt for his many achievements as an artist.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1)

Status: (Passed) 2012-02-22 - Resolution Adopted [HR0799 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2011-HR0799-Introduced.html

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HR0799 LRB097 20563 GRL 66165 r
HOUSE RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of
Representatives are pleased to congratulate Richard Howard
Hunt for his many achievements as a sculptor; and
WHEREAS, Richard Hunt was born on September 12, 1935, in
Chicago; he attended Chicago Public Schools before attending
the University of Illinois in Chicago; in 1957, he earned his
bachelor's degree in education from the University of Chicago;
from 1957 to 1958, he traveled and studied in England, France,
Spain, and Italy under the James Nelson Raymond Foreign Travel
Fellowship; and
WHEREAS, Richard Hunt served his country as a member of the
United States Army from 1958 to 1960; and
WHEREAS, Richard Hunt is well known throughout the world
for his abstract sculpture; he began sculpting in his teens,
modeling in clay and carving in his bedroom at home; he later
created a studio in the basement of his father's barbershop; as
a teen, he was intrigued by metalwork at the African collection
of Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History, where his mother,
a librarian, frequently took him, while his work in a
zoological lab at the University of Chicago contributed to his
fascination with animal and insect forms; and

HR0799 - 2 - LRB097 20563 GRL 66165 r
WHEREAS, From 1953 to 1957, Richard Hunt attended the Art
Institute of Chicago, where he focused on sculpture, especially
welding, and studied lithography; while at the institute, he
was exposed to the work of the sculptors Julio Gonzales and
David Smith, to whom he has attributed inspiration to use
direct-metal techniques to transform steel, aluminum, copper,
and bronze into sculpture; using a welding torch as his mallet
and chisel, he transformed found objects, garbage, and auto
parts found on industrial sites into plant-like and insect-like
forms; in 1959, he won his first award at an annual show for
artists in the Chicago area; and
WHEREAS, By 1960, Richard Hunt had become a major
open-form, direct-metal sculptor in the art world; at this
time, he began to combine closed with open forms, calling them
"hybrid figures"; in the 1970s, he added inventive Baroque
flourishes to his forms so that solids seemed both to penetrate
voids and to be penetrated by them; he later began to gradually
move away from his early calligraphic work, instead turning to
closed contours and solid shapes; and
WHEREAS, Richard Hunt has produced more than 55 public site
sculptures, including a candelabra for St. Matthew's Methodist
Church in Chicago in 1970; he has also created many color
lithographs and drawings; and

HR0799 - 3 - LRB097 20563 GRL 66165 r
WHEREAS, In 1971, Richard Hunt became the first
African-American to be accorded a retrospective at the Museum
of Modern Art; throughout the years, he has received
Guggenheim, Ford, and Tamarind Fellowships, awards from the Art
Institute of Chicago, and Logan, Palmer, and Compana prizes; he
also holds numerous honorary degrees from prestigious
universities and has served on the National Council of the Arts
and as a commissioner of the Smithsonian Institution's National
Museum of American Art; and
WHEREAS, Richard Hunt serves as a model of hard work,
integrity, and dedication for the people of the State of
Illinois; therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
NINETY-SEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
we congratulate Richard Howard Hunt for his many achievements
as an artist and thank him for serving as an exemplar in the
African-American community and as a source of inspiration
during Black History Month; and be it further
RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
presented to Richard Hunt as a symbol of our esteem and
respect.