THE TM 911 Franklin Street Weekly Newspaper Michigan City, IN 46360 Volume 35, Number 5 Thursday, February 7, 2019 Monumental Works by Edmund Lawler rom an industrial- looking workshop in a century-old brick building chock full of metal shards, blow torches, anvils, a hoist and a smatter of weld- ing tools arises the grace- ful, virtuosic handiwork of perhaps the nation’s most prolifi c public sculptor. Welcome to Richard Hunt’s Chi- cago studio. Beneath a 40-foot atri- um in a building that was once a Chicago Transit Authority electrical substation, the 83-year-old sculp- tor crafts large-scale abstract metal creations that accent more than 130 public sites across America. If you’ve been to Lubeznik Center for the Arts, Snite Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame, Krasl Art Center in St. Joseph, Mich., or just about anywhere in Hunt’s hometown of Chicago, you’ve seen his monumental works of copper, bronze and steel. They’re impossible to miss. For example, his sculpture “And You, Seas,” where the St. Joseph River meets Silver Beach, soars to a height of 48 feet. Nearby, at KAC, a pair of 22-foot high, twisting stain- less steel arches form a stunning new entrance to the art center’s lakefront campus. Richard Hunt is When he’s not working in his stu- photographed by dio in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neigh- Russell Jenkins in borhood, Hunt often can be found his Chicago studio. in his other workshop: the Richard Continued on Page 2 THE Page 2 February 7, 2019 THE 911 Franklin Street • Michigan City, IN 46360 219/879-0088 • FAX 219/879-8070 %HDFKHU&RPSDQ\'LUHFWRU\ e-mail: News/Articles - [email protected] 'RQDQG7RP0RQWJRPHU\ 2ZQHUV email: Classifieds - [email protected] $QGUHZ7DOODFNVRQ (GLWRU http://www.thebeacher.com/ 'UHZ:KLWH 3ULQW6DOHVPDQ PRINTE ITH Published and Printed by -DQHW%DLQHV ,QVLGH6DOHV&XVWRPHU6HUYLFH T %HFN\:LUHEDXJK 7\SHVHWWHU'HVLJQHU T A S A THE BEACHER BUSINESS PRINTERS 5DQG\.D\VHU 3UHVVPDQ 'RUD.D\VHU %LQGHU\ Delivered weekly, free of charge to Birch Tree Farms, Duneland Beach, Grand Beach, Hidden Shores, Long Beach, Michiana Shores, Michiana MI and Shoreland Hills. The Beacher is 0LNH%RUDZVNL+RSH&RVWHOOR&KHU\O-RSSHN 3URGXFWLRQ also delivered to public places in Michigan City, New Buffalo, LaPorte and Sheridan Beach. -RKQ%DLQHV.DUHQ*HKU&KULV.D\VHU'HQQLV0D\EHUU\ 'HOLYHU\ As an adult, he’s been a regular guest at artist Monumental Works Continued from Page 1 friends’ homes in such Harbor Country communi- ties as New Buffalo and Lakeside. Southwest Michi- Hunt Studio Center, which he established in 1995 gan has always felt like a second home to him. in Benton Harbor’s Arts District. Regardless if he’s sculpting in Benton Harbor or He was encouraged to open shop there by Corner- in Chicago, his creative process is much the same. stone Alliance, the economic development agency He combines the industrial skills of a master welder serving Benton Harbor and other Berrien County with the improvisational talents of a jazz musician. communities. The Alliance’s Community Renewal He admits he’s never quite sure where his muse will Through the Arts pro- take him when craft- gram is designed to help ing his wildly surreal stimulate the arts and sculptural creations that economic growth, and often feature a winged Hunt was eager to pitch motif. in. Hunt explains that he “It’s an attempt on a works directly with met- small-town level to cre- al as opposed to a sculpt- ate something like the ing process, where mol- River North area in Chi- ten metal is poured into cago or SoHo in New a shape so it will cool and York, where you have a harden into that form. blend of studios and gal- Working directly with leries and restaurants,” metal, he believes, al- Hunt says. “Benton lows for more improvisa- Harbor had taken over tion as he bends, burns several tax-delinquent and buffets a piece into properties, so I took a shape. look at some of them “In some of my works, and saw one I liked near it is my intention to de- Fourth and Territorial.” velop the kind of forms The district is a far nature might create if cry from River North’s only heat and steel were vibrancy and critical available to her,” he said. mass, but Hunt says Working directly with people who expect to metal, he adds, “Allows fi nd downtown Benton more freedom of ex- Harbor to be deserted pression than any other and dilapidated might sculpture technique. You be surprised to fi nd Hunt’s “Hybrid Figure,” outside the front doors at Lubeznik Center for the Arts. can put things together. signs of life, including some interesting dining and You can take them apart. Or you can put them to- entertainment venues, like The Mason Jar Cafe or gether in a little different way. There is the process The Livery. of working with the tools, feeling the metal, doing He remembers going with his family when he was whatever it is that you want to do with it.” a child to Benton Harbor to watch the legendary As a young man who contemplated a career as House of David baseball team. The extravagantly a painter, Hunt was inspired to work directly with bearded ball players represented a religious society metal after seeing a touring international exhibit founded there. His family — his father was a barber that stopped in Chicago. It featured some sculp- and his mother a beautician — also paid summer- tures of Picasso and his fellow Spanish abstraction- time visits to friends’ homes in nearby Cassopolis. ist, Julio Gonzalez. THE February 7, 2019 Page 3 MORE INFORMATION ABOUT INDIANA LAKEFRONT With Alan Landing’s permission (Alan has been appraising Indiana and Michigan properties for at least 30 years), I am quoting from his annual report on real-estate prices and sales. Alan has been publishing this annual report for many, many years. Data is for 2018 from GNIAR “In LaPorte County, of the seven reporting districts, four had fewer sales in 2018 than 2017, although all seven districts enjoyed The former Chicago Transit Authority building higher prices, with Michigan City reaching that Richard Hunt now uses for a studio. WKHSODWHDXIRUWKH¿UVWWLPHHYHU At Chicago’s School of the Art Institute, where 0/6GLVWULFWZKLFKHQFRPSDVVHVWKH he graduated in 1957, Hunt also was inspired by lake neighborhoods, had a record year for the abstract metal sculptures of his professor, Egon VDOHV RYHU PLOOLRQ ZLWK ZKLOH WKH old record was seven! Virtually all of the Weiner, as well as by another teacher, Nelli Bar. SULFHLQFUHDVHLQWKHODNHDUHDFDPHIURP Both Jews, they fl ed Nazi Germany to avoid perse- WKH VDOHV RI KRPHV ZRUWK PLOOLRQ DQG cution. PRUH ZLWK IRXU VDOHV WRSSLQJ PLOOLRQ Hunt, who began sculpting in clay in a makeshift WKLV\HDU´ studio in the bedroom of his family’s home on Chica- go’s South Side, wasted no time in making his mark on the world of art. When he was a junior at the ³$V PHQWLRQHG DERYH WKH ODNH DUHD School of the Art Institute, the Museum of Modern saw unit sales overall decline by 11, while Art in New York purchased one of his metal sculp- SULFHV URVH DSSUR[LPDWHO\ RQ tures, “Arachne.” DYHUDJHZLWKPRVWRIWKHLQFUHDVHIRXQG “It was obviously the most pleasant surprise I LQ WKH VDOHV RI KRPHV RI PLOOLRQ RU had up until that point,” says Hunt, a self-effacing PRUH/RZHUSULFHFDWHJRULHVVDZYLUWXDOO\ man with a gentle spirit. “It came out of the blue.” QR JDLQ LQ /RQJ %HDFK ¿QGV LWVHOI LQWDONVRYHUVHSWLFV\VWHPUHTXLUHPHQWV VHDZDOO UHTXLUHPHQWV DQG HYHQ ODNH RZQHUVKLSGLVFXVVLRQV7KLVZRXOGVHHP WRSUHVHQWDFKLOOLQJHIIHFWRQWKHPDUNHW EDVHGRQWKHIHZHUVDOHV+RZHYHUWKH VDOHVRIKRPHVZLWKDYDOXHRIPLOOLRQ RU PRUH KDG D UHFRUG \HDU DW ZLWK EHLQJWKHEHVW\HDUHYHUEHIRUH2IWKHVH VDOHVIRXUWRSSHGWKHPLOOLRQPDUN 6RHYHQZLWKDQXPEHURILVVXHVKDQJLQJ RYHUWKHGLVWULFWEX\HUVSDLGVRPHUHFRUG SULFHVIRUODNHIURQWSURSHUWLHV´ Alan did not break out Long Beach from Shorewood Hills, Duneland Beach and Michiana Shores, as I did last month. But I thought it would be good to see his comments Hunt’s “I Have Been to the Mountaintop” in Memphis, Tenn. and analysis, especially his information about harbor country Fourteen years later, Hunt became the fi rst Afri- higher end properties that I did not discuss. can-American artist to have a major solo exhibit at O: 269.469.5635 Ext. 302 MoMA, one of the world’s largest and most infl uen- C: 269.612.0505 Dan Coffey E: [email protected] tial repositories of modern art. W: www.remaxhc.com Continued on Page 4 THE Page 4 February 7, 2019 experience in America, as evident by such works as Monumental Works Continued from Page 3 the ‘Freedman’s Column’ at Howard University and ‘I Have Been to the Mountaintop,’ a memorial to As a student at the School of the Art Institute in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee, the 1950s, Hunt was only one of a handful of black where King was killed. students. He recalls there were no black instruc- “Hunt’s success and popularity as a sculptor of tors. Some of his fellow African-American class- public pieces can be attributed to the universal ap- mates went on to become art teachers or commer- peal of his work and his remarkable ability to pro- cial artists. duce abstract works that are suggestive of themes Richard Hunt says working with metal allows for more improvisation. “They did not have the great luck that I had,” and people of his immediate world.” Hunt says with his characteristic sense of under- Graduating with a degree in art education, Hunt statement. was awarded a coveted year-long fellowship that al- According to the Smithsonian Institution, “The lowed him to travel and study throughout Europe.