Steely gaze: a look back at Richard Hunt's early work at the Institute of Contemporary Art Miami

"Until 29 March 2026 Pressure is the largest survey to date devoted to the American sculptor Richard Hunt (1935-2023) and focuses on his ambitious, material-forward practice between 1955 and 1989. It coincides with a growing interest in the Chicago artist's singular approach to dimensionality and transcendence; White Cube, which began representing his work a few weeks before his death, staged solo shows of his work in New York (in 2024) and London (last spring)."

"Hunt taught himself welding while studying at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the mid-1950s, which allowed him to start creating poetic configurations of found rugged materials. "Richard was making clay figurines at age 14 in the basement of his father's shop-it was clear early on that he was a major artistic force," Sukanya Rajaratnam, a director at White Cube, tells The Art Newspaper. She signed the artist a few months after stepping into his studio, where he was storing all the early works that are featured in this show. Rajaratnam recalls: "I could even tell behind the dusty plastic wraps that this was an 'a-ha' moment.""

"A formative moment for the young artist came when he encountered the welded sculptures of Pablo Picasso and Julio González in the Art Institute of Chicago's 1953 exhibition Sculpture of the 20th Century. The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) show starts with Telescopic Construction (1955), which Hunt created two years later in an evident attempt to weld the invisible. Hunt created the show's second-oldest sculpture, Hero's Head (1956), after attending Emmett Till's open-casket funeral, which had a transformative impact on the 20-year-old artist. At just under ten inches, the welded steel bust of Till's disfigured head foreshadowed a practice that developed at the crossroads of the Civil Rights Movement and bold experiments at the boundary between figuration and abstraction."

Pressure, open until 29 March 2026, presents Richard Hunt's material-forward welded sculptures from 1955 to 1989. Hunt taught himself welding at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the mid-1950s and turned found, rugged materials into poetic, dimensional configurations. Early encounters with welded work by Picasso and Julio González shaped his approach. The experience of Emmett Till's open-casket funeral prompted the creation of Hero's Head (1956) and influenced a practice situated between figuration and abstraction amid the Civil Rights era. White Cube represents Hunt and has staged recent solo shows in New York and London.

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