Jon Ott
Executive Director, Official Biographer
"I want you to know I consider you my 'official biographer' . . . the shepherd of my legacy.
Your research and our dialogue put you in the unique position of being more knowledgeable of my history than any other person . . . I most fervently hope you will continue to tell my story after I am gone from this earth."
- Richard Hunt letter to Jon Ott
Jon Ott is the executive director and founding member of the foundation. He was a close friend of the artist and is Hunt's official biographer. Over the past several decades, Jon has spent countless hours with Hunt in his studios and on the road, traveling to see art and visit friends. For the artist's monograph, Richard Hunt, Jon interviewed Hunt for over one hundred hours, producing a comprehensive illustrated chronology of the artist’s life.
Jon writes and speaks on Hunt's life and art, including appearances at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (ICA Miami), Amon Carter Museum of American Art, White Cube Bermondsey, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (ALPLM), Chicago History Museum, and the Chicago Children's Museum. He authored the following essays: "Richard Hunt: Sculpting Freedom" for the ALPLM exhibition Richard Hunt: Freedom in Form and "Richard Hunt: Interpretive Density" for the Georgia Museum of Art's second edition of Synthesis. Jon was the exhibition advisor for Richard Hunt: Early Masterworks at White Cube New York and Richard Hunt: Metamorphosis – A Retrospective at White Cube Bermondsey in London.
Jon is a contributor to the upcoming Richard Hunt: Pressure exhibition catalogue by ICA Miami and 820 Ebony/Jet: Visions of an African American Icon, The Johnson Publishing Company. Jon is featured in the documentary film The Light of Truth: Richard Hunt’s Monument to Ida B. Wells.
Discover biographical content on Richard Hunt in the foundation's Bloomberg Connects Digital Guide, with an adapted Illustrated Biography of the artist's life and audio by Jon Ott describing Hero's Head (1956) and Hunt's latest installation at the Obama Presidential Center, Book Bird (2023).
