Richard Howard Hunt was born on the South Side of Chicago. His parents nurtured his passion for the arts and at thirteen enrolled him in the Junior School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He later studied at the University of Illinois, the University of Chicago, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
Hunt is recognized as the foremost African-American abstract sculptor and artist of public sculpture has remained unchallenged. In 1971, Hunt became one of the first black artists to be given a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Hunt explains, “public sculpture responds to the dynamics of a community, or those in it, who have a use for sculpture. It is this aspect of use, of utility, that gives public sculpture its vital and lively place in the public mind.”