Full Text of HR0799 97th General Assembly
HR0799 97TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of | 3 | | Representatives are pleased to congratulate Richard Howard | 4 | | Hunt for his many achievements as a sculptor; and
| 5 | | WHEREAS, Richard Hunt was born on September 12, 1935, in | 6 | | Chicago; he attended Chicago Public Schools before attending | 7 | | the University of Illinois in Chicago; in 1957, he earned his | 8 | | bachelor's degree in education from the University of Chicago; | 9 | | from 1957 to 1958, he traveled and studied in England, France, | 10 | | Spain, and Italy under the James Nelson Raymond Foreign Travel | 11 | | Fellowship; and
| 12 | | WHEREAS, Richard Hunt served his country as a member of the | 13 | | United States Army from 1958 to 1960; and
| 14 | | WHEREAS, Richard Hunt is well known throughout the world | 15 | | for his abstract sculpture; he began sculpting in his teens, | 16 | | modeling in clay and carving in his bedroom at home; he later | 17 | | created a studio in the basement of his father's barbershop; as | 18 | | a teen, he was intrigued by metalwork at the African collection | 19 | | of Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History, where his mother, | 20 | | a librarian, frequently took him, while his work in a | 21 | | zoological lab at the University of Chicago contributed to his | 22 | | fascination with animal and insect forms; and
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, From 1953 to 1957, Richard Hunt attended the Art | 2 | | Institute of Chicago, where he focused on sculpture, especially | 3 | | welding, and studied lithography; while at the institute, he | 4 | | was exposed to the work of the sculptors Julio Gonzales and | 5 | | David Smith, to whom he has attributed inspiration to use | 6 | | direct-metal techniques to transform steel, aluminum, copper, | 7 | | and bronze into sculpture; using a welding torch as his mallet | 8 | | and chisel, he transformed found objects, garbage, and auto | 9 | | parts found on industrial sites into plant-like and insect-like | 10 | | forms; in 1959, he won his first award at an annual show for | 11 | | artists in the Chicago area; and
| 12 | | WHEREAS, By 1960, Richard Hunt had become a major | 13 | | open-form, direct-metal sculptor in the art world; at this | 14 | | time, he began to combine closed with open forms, calling them | 15 | | "hybrid figures"; in the 1970s, he added inventive Baroque | 16 | | flourishes to his forms so that solids seemed both to penetrate | 17 | | voids and to be penetrated by them; he later began to gradually | 18 | | move away from his early calligraphic work, instead turning to | 19 | | closed contours and solid shapes; and
| 20 | | WHEREAS, Richard Hunt has produced more than 55 public site | 21 | | sculptures, including a candelabra for St. Matthew's Methodist | 22 | | Church in Chicago in 1970; he has also created many color | 23 | | lithographs and drawings; and |
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, In 1971, Richard Hunt became the first | 2 | | African-American to be accorded a retrospective at the Museum | 3 | | of Modern Art; throughout the years, he has received | 4 | | Guggenheim, Ford, and Tamarind Fellowships, awards from the Art | 5 | | Institute of Chicago, and Logan, Palmer, and Compana prizes; he | 6 | | also holds numerous honorary degrees from prestigious | 7 | | universities and has served on the National Council of the Arts | 8 | | and as a commissioner of the Smithsonian Institution's National | 9 | | Museum of American Art; and
| 10 | | WHEREAS, Richard Hunt serves as a model of hard work, | 11 | | integrity, and dedication for the people of the State of | 12 | | Illinois; therefore, be it
| 13 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | 14 | | NINETY-SEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 15 | | we congratulate Richard Howard Hunt for his many achievements | 16 | | as an artist and thank him for serving as an exemplar in the | 17 | | African-American community and as a source of inspiration | 18 | | during Black History Month; and be it further
| 19 | | RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | 20 | | presented to Richard Hunt as a symbol of our esteem and | 21 | | respect.
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