Richard Hunt
4 Stars Highly Recommended
Richard Hunt’s Monument to Ida B. Wells
Significant public sculpture has a special place in Chicago that might easily have begun with Lorado Taft’s 1922 “Fountain of Time” at the west end of the Midway Plaisance or his 1913 “Fountain of the Great Lakes” sculpture outside of the Art Institute.
What really kicked off the post-modern proliferation of public art was the 1967 installation of the Picasso sculpture in the Civic Center Plaza. The controversy and ultimate acceptance of this abstract colossus ushered in a new era of world class public sculpture that includes thought provoking works by masters such as Calder, Miro, Chagall and Chicago’s own Richard Hunt whose work speaks to and for the African American experience.
The documentary, Light of Truth: Richard Hunt’s Monument to Ida B. Wells, follows Hunt’s creation of a monument to civil right champion and woman’s suffrage leader Ida B. Wells. Using the depiction of his process as an opportunity to showcase each of their contributions to society, he does so within the greater context of the history of the black experience.
Ida B. Wells was born at the dawn of emancipation. She worked together with the likes of Frederick Douglass, stood up for the dignity of everyday people of color by refusing to give up her railroad seat decades before Rosa parks did the same on a Montgomery bus, marched side-by side in Washington D.C. with white suffragettes and carried the message of black American’s struggle for equality as a lecturer around the world.
In the urban renewal period of the 1960s, her name was associated with a low-income housing project on Chicago’s southside. It is on that site that the monument is erected as a tribute to her and as a legacy for the many people who identify this location as their neighborhood and home.
A master of metal work, Hunt manages to fashion tons of steel into forty-foot-tall flickering flames reminiscent of the lightness and brilliance of Aether projecting skyward as though illuminating the heavens.
In this way, Hunt’s creation transcends Wells’ physical form in favor of reflecting her qualities of leadership and courageous spirit of hope.
This informative film by Producer/Director Rana Segal and Chicago based Producer Laurie Little, points out an interesting but tragic similarity that was a turning point for each of these subjects.
For Wells it was the lynching of three prominent black men in her hometown of Memphis while for Hunt, it was the public viewing in 1955 of the disfigured body of Emmit Till, a black teenager brutally beaten by white southerners while visiting in Mississippi.
In Light of Truth, editors Tom Desch and Rana Segal skillfully weave together biographical information about to the two main subjects of Hunt and Wells while providing important historical insight and illuminating the continuing quest to overcome what many call America’s original sin.
The premier of the 67-minute documentary Light of Truth: Richard Hunt’s Monument to Ida B. Wells is being screened as part of the 60th Chicago International Film Festival October 16-27, 2024. For festival information visit ChicagoFilmFestival.com For film information visit http://amonumentforidabfilm.com
Reno Lovison