State of Illinois Proclamation
State of Illinois Proclamation In 2023, April 24 was designated “Richard Hunt Day” by the First Lady of Illinois, MK Pritzker.
Label Audio
State of Illinois Executive Department Proclamation
Whereas, I, Governor JB Pritzker, and First Lady MK Pritzker are pleased to celebrate Richard Howard Hunt for his contributions to the arts in Illinois and across the globe: and,
Whereas, Richard Hunt was born in Chicago on September 12, 1935, and grew up on the South Side of Chicago; he graduated from Chicago Public Schools and earned a scholarship from the Chicago Public School Art Society to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from which he received his B.A.E. in 1957; he later taught at both the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Illinois in Chicago; he served in the United States Army from 1958 to 1960; and on March 16, 1960 was the first African American to be served at the Woolworth’s lunch counter in San Antonio, Texas, which was the first peaceful and voluntary lunch-counter integration in the South; and
Whereas, Richard Hunt’s artistry is well-recognized and honored for his innovative techniques inspired by modern art, the struggle for freedom, and his African American heritage; his artistic process includes welding and casting metals, including steel, aluminum, copper, and bronze to depict some of the nation’s greatest heroes; he had memorialized some of the great figures in the history of the state of Illinois such as the abolitionist John Jones, Senator Adelbert Roberts, and the poet Carl Sandburg; his sculptures also commemorate historical events such as the slave trade, the Middle Passage, the Great Migration, and Civil Rights; and his sculpture Hybrid Muse was commissioned by the Illinois Arts Council Foundation which serves as the Governor’s Awards for the Arts and became the logo for the Illinois Arts Council Agency; and,
Whereas, Richard Hunt, in 1957, while still a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago had his sculpture Arachne acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York; in 1962 he was the youngest artist to exhibit at the Seattle World’s Fair; in 1968 he was the first African American visual artist to serve on the National Council on the Arts; in 1971, he became the first African American sculptor to be given a retrospective by the Museum of Modern Art in New York; and he has made the largest contribution to public arts in the United States with over 160 public sculptures located across 24 states and Washington, D.C.; and in 2021, created the first monument to an African American women in Chicago: The Light of Truth Ida B. Wells National Monument; and,
Whereas, in 1967, his sculpture Play was the first public sculpture to be commissioned in the state of Illinois’s Public Art Program; and in the state of Illinois, Richard Hunt’s art may be found in the collections of The DuSable Museum of African American History, Elmhurst University Art Collection, the Illinois State Museum, the Koehnline Museum of Art, the Krannert Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park, the Peoria Riverfront Museum, the Smart Museum of Art, and the University Museum at Southern Illinois University; his sculpture, Hero Construction, is the centerpiece of the Art Institute of Chicago; Illinois River Landscape, originally commissioned for the State of Illinois Building, is now installed at the Illinois Department of Natural Resources; he created the piece Growing Flowing for the Lincoln Parlor in the Illinois Governor’s Mansion in Springfield; and he is the first artist commissioned to create a work, Book Bird, for the Obama President Center in Chicago and,
Whereas, Richard Hunt’s contributions to the art world are invaluable; throughout his career spanning seven decades, he has been recognized with over 16 honorary degrees, 30 awards, and has served on multiple boards and councils; he has held over 150 solo exhibitions and is represented in more than 100 public museums across the globe, from California to Maine, Detroit to Birmingham, and Vienna to Jerusalem; he is one of the nation’s greatest artists;
Therefore, I, JB Pritzker, Governor of the State of Illinois, in recognition of Richard Hunt’s gifts to art, to the people of Illinois, and to the nation, do hereby proclaim April 24, 2023, as Richard Hunt Day.
In Witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the great seal of the State of Illinois to be affixed.
Done at the Capitol in the City of Springfield, this twenty-fourth day of April, in the year of Our Lord, two thousand and twenty-three, and of the State of Illinois, two-hundred and fifth,