Richard Hunt, Triangulum, 1974, cor-ten steel, welded. Collection of the Springfield Art Museum.
Many who visit the Museum may have seen this sculpture located on the north side of the amphitheater. This work is titled Triangulum and was created by Chicago-based sculptor Richard Hunt.
Hunt grew up in Chicago and was encouraged by his parents in his artistic pursuits from an early age, enrolling in a summer program at age fifteen at the Junior School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He eventually received his bachelor's degree there where he won a number of scholarships and awards for his work.
Hunt opened his own workshop in 1953 where he began producing sculpture that was essentially figural, reflecting classical themes. His Hybrid Figures series, made in a range of materials from copper and iron to aluminum and steel, refer to the natural, living forms of plants, animals and humans.
A major commission in 1967, Play, marked a turning point in Hunt's career. The proposed sculpture was so large that his studio could not physically accommodate it, so for the first time he began working with the aid of assistants and machines in a metal fabrication shop. This began what Hunt considers as his "second career" - that of a public sculptor.
While studio sculptures evoke the spontaneous hand of the artist and tend to be more introspective, Hunt's fabricated sculptures made for public spaces allow the artist to conceive of his work in terms of broad spatial, material and interactive possibilities, frequently taking on a life of their own as they twist upwards and outwards. His public works necessarily respond to the dynamics and vernacular of the particular community for which it was created. "Artists no longer must imitate nature, but are free to interpret it," he has said. "Sometimes I try to develop forms nature might create if only heat and steel were available to her."
