Line to Form: Richard Hunt’s Prints and Sculpture presents an in-depth exploration of Richard Hunt’s artistic legacy, spotlighting prints and sculptures created during his distinguished career. The exhibition features a selection of Hunt’s prints from the 1970s, from MMoCA’s collection, alongside two bronze sculptures.
Richard Hunt is best known for his large public sculptures, but this exhibition shows a different side of his work. With artworks such as Untitled, 1978 the improvisational and abstract nature of his sculptural work is manifested on paper using the language of gestural abstraction. Other artworks, such as Paper Piece I, 1978, highlight the artist’s exploration of materiality, as he built paper pulp into a layered composition. Connecting the two-dimensional works in the exhibition are a pair of sculptures that echo the free-flowing abstract forms that Hunt explored throughout his career. One of these sculptures, Untitled, 1981 is marked by bronze disease, a type of corrosion that occurs when chlorides come into contact with bronze or other copper alloys. This exhibition offers an educational discussion of the preservation and conservation practices required to maintain the artwork in MMoCA’s permanent collection and preserve the legacy of Richard Hunt.
Image: Richard Hunt, Untitled, 1978. Lithograph on paper. 16 x 11 inches. © 2024 The Richard Hunt Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. Collection of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Christopher A. Graf
