‘Freedom in Form’ Exhibition at Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum

SPRINGFIELD – A major exhibition that celebrates the groundbreaking art of sculptor Richard Hunt and the history that inspired it opened Friday at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. “Freedom in Form: Richard Hunt” runs through April 20, 2025.

Hunt, who lived and worked in Chicago all his life, produced more public sculptures than any other artist in American history. They can be found in plazas and parks from Champaign and Peoria to Washington and New York. He was the subject of more than 160 exhibitions during his 70-year career. His abstract art gave form to the pain and the hopes of African Americans striving for true equality.

“I can’t think of a better way to honor Abraham Lincoln’s legacy than by opening an exhibition about freedom,” said Christina Shutt, executive director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. “It presents the work of a visionary artist who was inspired by 400 years of pain and struggle, some of which connected directly to President Lincoln’s historic achievements.”

With 44 pieces, “Freedom in Form” is the first major Hunt exhibition in Illinois since his death last year. It includes the 22-foot-tall “Steel Garden” outside the museum, a gallery full of large- and medium-sized works and models of immense public sculptures around the country. The exhibition also gives visitors a peek into Hunt’s creative process by displaying his work clothes, tools and hundreds of books that inspired him.

For the first time anywhere, visitors can see two works that serve as emotional bookends to Hunt’s career. One is the 1956 sculpture “Hero’s Head,” inspired by Hunt seeing the battered body of Emmett Till, the Chicago teenager who was murdered in Mississippi. The other is a model of a memorial to Till that Hunt was working on when he died.

The exhibition was produced by ALPLM Exhibits and Shows Director Lance Tawzer and curated by Ross Stanton Jordan, curatorial manager at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum. It is accompanied by a hard-cover catalog with photographs of the featured art and essays about Hunt’s career.

After its run at the ALPLM, the exhibition moves to the Loyola University Museum of Art in Chicago. The project received cooperation from The Richard Hunt Trust, as well as the DePaul University Museum of Art, DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center, Illinois State Museum, Illinois Governor’s Mansion and the Richard Hunt Legacy Foundation.

“An art exhibition of this scale is a new challenge for the ALPLM, but we thought the idea was too good to pass up,” Tawzer said. “We had an Illinois artist who built an international reputation exploring themes of race, justice and civil rights in America – basically, looking at where this nation stood 150 years after Abraham Lincoln wrestled with those same issues. We think people will be fascinated by this look at the intersection of art and history.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Admission to “Freedom in Form: Richard Hunt” is free with the regular ALPLM admission price.

About Richard Hunt

Hunt was born in 1935 on Chicago’s South Side. He studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago but taught himself to weld as he experimented with cutting-edge sculptural techniques. He achieved national attention in 1957 when the Museum of Modern Art acquired one of his early works. His career took off from there, leading more than 100 museums to add his work to their collections. Among his 160 public sculptures are monuments to such heroes as Martin Luther King Jr., Mary McLeod Bethune, Jesse Owens and Ida B. Wells. He was appointed to the National Council on the Arts in 1968.

Barack Obama called him “one of the finest artists ever to come out of Chicago,” and a Hunt sculpture will stand at the Obama Presidential Center. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture said, “Hunt’s stature and impact cannot be overstated.”

He died December 16, 2023.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more on Hunt, please visit www.RichardHuntSculptor.com.

About the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum

The ALPLM’s mission is to inspire civic engagement through the diverse lens of Illinois history and to share with the world the life and legacy of Abraham Lincoln. We pursue this mission through a combination of rigorous scholarship and high-tech showmanship built on the bedrock of the ALPLM’s unparalleled collection of historical materials – roughly 13 million items from all eras of Illinois history.

The museum is open 9-5 every day of the year except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day.

For more information, visit www.PresidentLincoln.illinois.gov. You can follow the ALPLM on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.