Richard Hunt: Pressure

A major institutional survey examines five decades of Richard Hunt’s sculptural innovation and his sustained engagement with American history and social justice.

Richard Hunt: Pressure is on view December 2 through March 29 at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami. The exhibition marks the first U.S. institutional survey since the artist’s passing and highlights his pioneering approach to metal sculpture, from welded steel and Cor-Ten to bronze and stainless steel. Hunt, who emerged as a defining voice in modernist sculpture, forged a language that is at once abstract, fluid and deeply responsive to the social realities of his time.

The presentation features twenty-five works spanning the 1950s through the 1990s, including early pieces that reimagined discarded automobile parts and chromed furniture elements as dynamic forms exploring extension, motion, and “drawing in space.” Other works speak directly to the nation’s civil rights history. Hero’s Head (1956) reflects on the murder of Emmett Till, who lived near Hunt’s childhood home, while I Have Been to the Mountain (1977), a maquette referencing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s final speech, translates a landscape of peaks into a monument of resilience. Models for public works such as Freedmen’s Column (1989) and the unrealized Middle Passage Monument (1987) further underscore his lifelong engagement with memory, liberation and cultural heritage.

Balancing large bronzes and stainless-steel sculptures with intimate maquettes, Richard Hunt: Pressure traces how the artist reshaped modern sculpture’s possibilities and influenced more than 160 public commissions across the country. The exhibition is organized by ICA Miami and curated by Alex Gartenfeld, Irma and Norman Braman Artistic Director, and Gean Moreno, Director of the Art + Research Center.