RICHARD HUNT | A LIFE OF GRACE, DIGNITY, AND DEVOTION TO CHICAGO

Pigment International dedicates Black Fine Art Month 2026 to the sculptor whose work reached the world and never left home.

Richard Hunt with artist Chris Devins who recently completed the hunt mural in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. [photo credit Chris Devins]

It is fitting and proper that we dedicate Black Fine Art Month 2026 to Richard Hunt. His influence on art was profound and international, yet he remained devoted to his hometown of Chicago, the South Side where he was born and raised. He lived his life with grace, dignity, and a deep respect for his city and his culture. As we honor Black artistic excellence this month, we honor a man who embodied it.

On October 23rd Pigment International will host Pigmented: Chicago to the World — A Black Fine Art Convening at the University of Chicago’s Logan Center for the Arts on October 23. Speakers for the event will be Jon Ott of the Richard Hunt Legacy Foundation, Janice Bond of Chicago Public Art Group (CPAG),and Pam Cullerton of Chicago Sculpture Exhibit (CSE). Join us as we continue to uplift Hunt's legacy. Get your tickets here.  

A Life in Highlights

• 1955: A turning point. At age 19, Hunt attended the funeral of Emmett Till and identified it as a turning point in his artistic life. Till, the murdered 14-year-old, had lived two blocks from Hunt’s home. Hunt later said that what happened to Emmett could have happened to him. Before long he devoted himself to civil rights and to art that expressed the critical need for human freedom and social justice, and soon began welding sculptures from found metal such as bumpers and fenders gathered from scrap yards.

• 1960: A seat at the counter. On March 16, 1960, while serving in the U.S. Army at Fort Sam Houston, Hunt sat at the “whites only” counter of the Woolworth’s on Alamo Plaza in San Antonio and ordered a ham sandwich. He was served without incident, and is recognized as the first African American served at that counter. Jackie Robinson later called it “a story that should be told around the world.”

• 1968: A first on the national stage. President Lyndon Johnson appointed Hunt to the National Council on the Arts, making him the first African American to serve in that role.

• 1971: Museum of Modern Art. At age 35, Hunt became the first African American sculptor to have a retrospective of his work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

• 1981: A voice on the jury. Hunt was one of eight jurors, and the only African American, for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial competition in Washington, D.C.

Hunt during Black Fine Art Month, the new Hunt mural in Hyde Park; Hunt's work "Hero Construction" at the Art Institute of Chicago, in the pages of Pigment Magazine, and with students during his recognition by the Leadership Advisory Council (LAC) of the Art Institute. Hunt's daughter Cecilia Hunt is a member of the LAC.

• A body of work without equal. Hunt held more than 250 solo exhibitions, 500 group exhibitions and is represented in more than 130 public museums. He made the largest contribution to public sculpture in the United States, with more than 160 public commissions gracing prominent locations in 24 states and Washington, D.C. Monuments honor towering figures including Martin Luther King Jr., Mary McLeod Bethune, Jesse Owens, and Ida B. Wells, and his sculptures commemorate the Middle Passage and the Great Migration. His “Light of Truth: Ida B. Wells National Monument,” in Bronzeville, was created in honor of Wells and with the close involvement of her great-granddaughter, historian Michelle Duster.

• 2016: Swing Low at NMAAHC. Hunt’s work is part of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, where “Swing Low” has hung in Heritage Hall since the museum opened. Hunt called it an homage to the power of spirituals, the enduring music and poetry that sustained generations of Black Americans, and he donated the piece to the museum.

• 2020: Featured in Pigment Magazine. Hunt's collaboration with Thomas Lucas of Hummingbird Press was featured in Pigment International Magazine,

• October 22, 2021: Hosting Pigment in his studio. With characteristic graciousness, Hunt welcomed Pigment International into his studio for Black Fine Art Month where we recorded a podcast with WXRT Radio.

• June 2022: Honored by the Art Institute of Chicago. Hunt was honored by the Leadership Advisory Council of the Art Institute of Chicago with its Legends and Legacy Award, a fitting tribute from the institution where he first studied as a young man at the Junior School.

The Hunt at the Logan Center opened in September and the street named for Hunt nears his Lincoln Park studio, now owned by the Richard Hunt Trust.

• 2022: The Obama Presidential Center. Former President Barack Obama commissioned Hunt to create “Book Bird,” a sculpture for the grounds of the new Chicago Public Library branch on the Obama Presidential Center campus. President Obama called Hunt “one of the greatest artists Chicago ever produced.” Hunt’s work is now part of both the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Obama Presidential Center.

• 2023: A final tribute to Till. Hunt died December 16, 2023, at age 88. He was completing “Hero Ascending,” a monument to Emmett Till planned for Till’s childhood home, returning at the end of his life to the moment that shaped his beginning.



• Today: The Hunt Café at the Logan Center. This fall, the University of Chicago’s Logan Center for the Arts opened the Hunt, a café honoring Hunt, who was born and raised on Chicago’s South Side and kept a lifelong connection to the University. Created and designed by Monica Haslip, founder and executive director of Little Black Pearl, the space incorporates two Hunt sculptures, African art, archival materials from the Richard Hunt Legacy Foundation and Trust, and images by photographer Sandro Miller.

• Today: A mural in Hyde Park. Artist Chris Devins and historian Michelle Duster have brought a monumental mural of Hunt to Hyde Park at 1515–19 E. 54th Street, visible from Lake Park, in the neighborhood that is home to several of Hunt’s sculptures, including “Book Bird.” It is based on original photographs Devins took of Hunt in his studio before he passed, as part of Devins’ Legends Initiative. Devins, whose work appears across the South Side, is the recipient of a 2023 Landmarks Illinois Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Preservation Award for Cultural Heritage Conservation.

“Richard Hunt was a giant in the arts world and people need to see what he looked like and be inspired by his legacy.” — Chris Devins

Hunt’s legacy will continue to grow over time and stand as a model for future artists. This Black Fine Art Month, we say thank you.