Sculptor Preston Jackson will visit the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield to share his memories of the late Richard Hunt, the subject of a special exhibit at the presidential library.
Based in central Illinois, Jackson has built a national reputation for his paintings and sculptures, which can be whimsical or deadly serious, abstract or realistic in every detail. One of his sculptures – about a white mob attacking Springfield’s African American residents in 1908 – stands on the ALPLM campus. He has received the state’s highest civilian honor, the Order of Lincoln, and has been called one of the greatest Black artists of our time.
One of Jackson’s friends and inspirations was Chicago-based sculptor Richard Hunt, who produced more public sculptures than any other artist in American history. Hunt is the focus of the ALPLM exhibition, “Freedom in Form: Richard Hunt,” which presents work from all eras of Hunt’s long, celebrated career.
Jackson will speak Thursday, March 13, at 6:30 p.m. about Hunt’s work, the similarities and differences between their careers and the challenges of addressing American history in art. Doors open at 6 p.m. The event is free, but advance registration is required at www.PresidentLincoln.Illinois.gov.
Jackson will be interviewed by Ross Stanton Jordan, curator of the ALPLM’s “Freedom in Form” exhibition. At 2 p.m. the same day, Jordan will lead a special tour of the exhibition and discuss Richard Hunt’s career and importance. The exhibition’s final day in Springfield will be April 20.
Hunt’s work 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. He was born in 1935 on Chicago’s South Side and studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He achieved national attention in 1957 when the Museum of Modern Art acquired one of his early works. 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.
He died December 16, 2023.
For more on Hunt, visit www.RichardHuntSculptor.com.
