Renowned Chicago Sculptor’s Work Comes Home to Chicago this Summer

CONTACT 
Gabby Abbott 
Gabbott3@LUC.edu

CHICAGO—Loyola University Museum of Art (LUMA) will celebrate the work of renowned sculptor Richard Hunt with a special exhibition that showcases his groundbreaking art and explores the history that so often inspired him. Freedom in Form: Richard Hunt opens July 11 and runs through November 15, 2025, at LUMA.

Hunt (1935-2023) was born on Chicago’s South Side and made the city his artistic home. Freedom in Form presents Hunt’s artistic achievement within the national narrative of the struggle for freedom and the delivery of liberty to all people—a heritage that motivated Hunt’s 70 years of making art. Through Hunt’s sculptures, maquettes, tools, books, photographs, prints, video interviews, and a chronology of his life, the exhibition will give visitors a glimpse into his creative process and numerous inspirations, from his early days as a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago to his rise to an international renowned artist.

Freedom in Form tells the story of an artist affected by the civil rights struggle of his time and committed to artistic freedom of expression. For the first time anywhere, visitors will be able to see two works together that serve as bookends to Hunt’s career. Hunt created Hero’s Head (1956) when he was 19, after attending the open-casket funeral of Emmett Till, Hunt’s 14-year-old neighbor who was brutally murdered in a racial killing in Money, Mississippi, in 1955. Till’s murder galvanized the Civil Rights Movement and influenced Hunt’s artistic practice. Before his death in 2023, Hunt completed the designs for Hero Ascending, a soaring monument for Till’s childhood home in Chicago, which will become the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley (MEd ’71) House Museum. Freedom in Form presents Hunt’s life and work in the years between these two seminal works.

The exhibition is accompanied by a beautiful 116-page, full-color catalogue, featuring a foreword by Christina Shutt, director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (ALPLM); a foreword by Rev. Michael J. Garanzini, S.J., president of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities and president emeritus of Loyola; and new essays by curator Ross Stanton Jordan, Hunt’s biographer Jon Ott, and historian Timothy J. Gilfoyle, a Loyola professor.

Loyola University Chicago is especially excited to welcome this exhibition, as Hunt served on the University’s Council of Regents and as an adjunct faculty member, helping to elevate fine arts education at the University. In addition, two Hunt sculptures grace Loyola’s campus grounds—Angled Angel (2011) and Sea Change (1986).

The exhibition, first shown at the ALPLM in Springfield last year, was produced by ALPLM Exhibits and Shows Director Lance Tawzer and curated by Jordan, curatorial manager at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum. The project received cooperation from The Richard Hunt Trust, as well as the Richard Hunt Legacy Foundation, the DePaul University Museum of Art, DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center, Illinois State Museum, and Illinois Governor’s Mansion.

“Hunt was an artistic chronicler of our time and a champion of the arts as central to our collective humanity,” Jordan said. “I’m proud that the city of Chicago will be able to experience so much of his renowned artistic output in one place and be inspired by his impact on the country and around the world.”

Tickets to Freedom in Form are available for purchase on the LUMA website.

LUMA is on Loyola’s Water Tower Campus, located next to the famed “Magnificent Mile,” conveniently near the CTA’s Red Line-Chicago/State station and several bus stops.

Cost of Admission

• Loyola staff, students, faculty: FREE 
• Alumni, military, senior citizens and non-Loyola students: $12 
• Groups of 6 or more: $12 
• Regular full admission: $15 

Additional programming for the exhibition will be announced later this summer.  

About Richard Hunt
Hunt was born in 1935 on Chicago’s South Side. He studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and taught himself to weld as he experimented with cutting-edge sculptural techniques. He achieved national attention in 1957 when the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) acquired one of his early works, Arachne (1956). His career took off from there, leading more than 125 museums to add his work to their collections.

Hunt 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. Among his 160 public sculptures are monuments to such heroes as Martin Luther King Jr., Mary McLeod Bethune, Jesse Owens and Ida B. Wells-Barnett. He was appointed to the National Council on the Arts in 1968. He had more than 170 solo exhibitions during his prolific career. Hunt was the first African American sculptor to have a retrospective at MoMA in 1971.

Barack Obama called him “one of the finest artists ever to come out of Chicago,” and a Hunt sculpture, Book Bird, will be installed at the Obama Presidential Center Library. 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. 

Media Kit
Click here to download images of Hunt and his art.

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About Loyola University Chicago
Founded in 1870, Loyola University Chicago is one of the nation’s largest Jesuit, Catholic universities, recognized for its academic excellence, commitment to community engagement, and leadership in sustainability. A Carnegie R1 research institution, Loyola leverages its status as one of an elite group of universities with the highest level of research activity to advance knowledge that serves communities and creates global impact. With 15 schools, colleges, and institutes—including Business, Law, Medicine, Nursing, and Health Sciences—Loyola operates three primary campuses in the greater Chicago area and one in Rome, Italy, that provide students a transformative, globally connected learning experience. Consistently ranked among the nation’s top universities by U.S. News & World Report, Loyola is a STARS Gold-rated institution that is ranked as one of the country’s most sustainable campuses by The Princeton Review and has earned distinctions from AmeriCorps and the Carnegie Foundation for its longstanding record of service and community engagement. Guided by its Jesuit mission and commitment to caring for the whole person, Loyola educates ethical leaders who think critically, act with purpose, and strive to create a more just and sustainable world. 

About LUMA
The Loyola University Museum of Art (LUMA) was founded in 2005 on the Water Tower Campus of Loyola University Chicago. Loyola University Museum of Art (LUMA) is dedicated to providing a space for artistic expression that illuminates the experiences of humanity and the spirit through connection, engagement, and reflection. As a university museum, LUMA supports the power of the students’ artistry and their ability to inspire and educate. The Museum interprets and displays the University’s medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque collection, known as the Martin D’Arcy, S.J. Collection, other museum permanent collections, and rotating exhibitions. For more information, please visit www.luc.edu/luma. You can follow LUMA on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. 

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. 

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

About the Richard Hunt Legacy Foundation
Richard Hunt established the Richard Hunt Legacy Foundation as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in 2023 to ensure that future generations fully appreciate his life and art. The foundation welcomes support from all who appreciate the incredible contributions of one of America’s most important sculptors. 

For more information, visit www.richardhuntsculptor.org. You can follow the Richard Hunt Legacy Foundation on Facebook and Instagram