Bill Text: IL HR0815 | 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) 2012-02-28 - Resolution Adopted [HR0815 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2011-HR0815-Introduced.html

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HR0815 LRB097 20638 GRL 66502 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 1953, he attended the
University of Chicago; in 1957, he earned his bachelor's degree
in art education from the School of the Art Institute of
Chicago; from 1957 to 1958, he traveled and studied in England,
France, Spain, and Italy under the Art Institute of Chicago's
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; his work in a zoological lab
at the University of Chicago during high school and college

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contributed to his fascination with animal and insect forms;
and
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, scrap metal, 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 at the Chicago Art Institute; 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 130 public
site specific sculptures, including a cross and candelabra for

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St. Matthew's Methodist Church in Chicago in 1970, Fight Forms
for Midway Airport, and freeform for the State of Illinois
Office Building (now James R. Thompson Center) in Chicago; he
has created many other sculptures, color lithographs, and
drawings, including memorials to Martin Luther King, Jr. and
the Freedmens Bureau; he has also recently been chosen to
create a commemorative for Ida B. Wells in Bronzeville in
Chicago; and
WHEREAS, In 1971, Richard Hunt became the first
African-American sculptor to be accorded a retrospective at the
Museum of Modern Art in New York; throughout the years, he has
received Guggenheim, Ford, and Tamarind Fellowships, and
awards from the Art Institute of Chicago, including the Logan,
Palmer, and Compana prizes; he holds numerous honorary degrees
from prestigious universities and has been elected to
membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the
National Academy of Design; he has also served on the National
Council of the Arts, as a commissioner of the Smithsonian
Institution's National Museum of American Art, and as a juror
for Maya Lin's Vietnam Veteran's Memorial in Washington, D.C.;
and
WHEREAS, In 2008, Richard Hunt became the inspiration for
the "Richard Hunt Fine Arts Room" within the newly-built campus
of Christ the King Jesuit College Preparatory High School in

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order to give young people the opportunity to pursue the fine
arts and motivate them through his extraordinary example of
creativity and his artistic vision; 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.