Jon Ott
Official Biographer, Exhibitions Advisor
"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 official biographer for Richard Hunt and was a close friend of the artist. He is a founding board member of the Richard Hunt Legacy Foundation and chair emeritus of the International Sculpture Center. 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 Chicago History Museum, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (ALPLM). Recently, he authored an essay, "Richard Hunt: Sculpting Freedom," for the ALPLM exhibition Richard Hunt: Freedom in Form, and 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 currently writing for Richard Hunt: Synthesis, an exhibition catalogue by the Georgia Museum of Art, 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 and is an advising producer of the forthcoming documentary Richard Hunt: A Monumental Life.
Ott's interview with WBEZ upon his passing: "A Tribute to Richard Hunt" (December 22, 2023)
The Richard Hunt Legacy Foundation and Creative West’s Public Art Archive™ are pleased to announce a new partnership developed to inventory, document, and provide free online access to a comprehensive catalog of Richard Hunt’s extensive public art commissions throughout the U.S. With 160 public commissions, Hunt is the most prolific public sculptor in the U.S.
The exhibition is the first European retrospective of work by Chicago sculptor Richard Hunt, one of the foremost American sculptors of the 20th and 21st centuries.
To celebrate the opening, on Thursday,
April 24, 2025 from 5.30-6.30pm art historian, critic and curator, Mark Godfrey will join Hunt’s biographer Jon Ott in a conversation on the artist’s life, work and legacy.
The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum's exhibition catalogue, Freedom in Form: Richard Hunt tells the story of an artist affected by the civil rights struggle of his time and committed to artistic freedom of expression and the possibility of transformation.
The exhibition is open from October 25, 2024 through April 20, 2025.