An Experiential Bistro

The Richard Hunt Legacy Foundation is proud to announce a dynamic partnership with Little Black Pearl and the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago to create The Hunt. Designed as an experiential bistro, this space serves as a gateway into the life, art, and philosophical principles of Richard Hunt, one of America's preeminent sculptors. By embedding Hunt’s narrative and signature industrial-organic aesthetic into a vibrant campus hub, we are cultivating a space that fosters community, robust conversation, and deep intellectual inquiry.

The Hunt joins a select group of international dining destinations dedicated to honoring modern masters. It stands alongside spaces like Restaurant Le Dalí inside Hôtel Le Meurice in Paris, which features surrealist interiors celebrating Salvador Dalí; the Mary Cassatt Tea Room at Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Hotel, which pays tribute to the Impressionist pioneer; Café Pablo in Barcelona, designed to honor the artistic bridge Pablo Picasso built between Barcelona and Paris; and Els Quatre Gats in Barcelona, the bohemian cabaret frequented by metal sculptor Julio González that served as the launching pad of Picasso’s career, where he designed the original menu cover and held his first-ever solo exhibition in 1900.

Lizz Wright, head chef

Inspired by Hunt and designed by Monica Haslip of Little Black Pearl, the bistro’s environment translates the sculptor's legacy into a tangible, welcoming gathering space. Haslip's incredible vision utilizes physical assets from Hunt's archives to help design an interior that deeply reflects his material vocabulary.

To bring the artist's personal presence into the space, striking black-and-white portraits of Richard Hunt by the famed photographer Sandro Miller bring his likeness alive in the dining area. These intimate portraits are complemented by a curated selection of vintage posters highlighting a few of Hunt's historic exhibitions, featuring prominent examples from galleries and museums in New York and Chicago.

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Complementing this visual and architectural embrace is the menu crafted by chef Lizz Wright. An accomplished singer and performer, Wright brings her extraordinary artistry to the kitchen. Her southern-inspired cuisine evokes the spirit of Richard Hunt, nourishing both body and soul while echoing the improvisational, musical grace central to his sculptural practice. Together, the experience is intended to make The Hunt a compelling destination for a meal or coffee while enjoying art, culture and connection.

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Flyaway, Medium Broken Obelisk, and African Art

To further immerse guests in his mastery of three-dimensional space and his commitment to the synthesis of organic and industrial subject matter, bronze sculptures by Richard Hunt are on display within the bistro.

These include the cast bronze sculpture Flyaway (1987), whose ascending avian form was inspired by the traditional gospel hymn "I'll Fly Away," reflecting Hunt's recurring themes of spiritual uplift, flight, and freedom. Also featured is the welded bronze Medium Broken Obelisk (ca. 2020). This powerful work draws inspiration from the Egyptian architectural elements used on the set of a 1940s performance of Verdi's Aida at the Lyric Opera—a historic production in which Hunt's mother sang as part of an all-Black cast.

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African art and artifacts from Hunt's own collection are also on display, giving a glimpse into the works that inspired his vision and will now inspire new generations of visitors.

Explore the Listening Bar

Richard Hunt's sculptural process was deeply rooted in three primary musical traditions: spirituals, baroque music, and jazz. Growing up on Chicago's South Side, his early exposure to the vocal artistry of Marian Anderson and Paul Robeson—championed by his mother, a church and opera singer—inspired monumental sculptural works like Swing Low (2016). Similarly, his background in choral singing, particularly performing Handel’s "Messiah," fostered a connection to baroque polyphony that directly shaped pieces such as Baroque Spiral (1974), which is in the Art Institute of Chicago's permanent collection.

Furthermore, the spontaneous, improvisational structure of jazz closely mirrored Hunt's direct-metal welding technique. Seeing John Coltrane perform live inspired rhythmically charged sculptures like Giant Steps (1982), while other musical touchstones—such as Verdi’s Aida and collaborative jazz projects like Kamau Kenyatta's Bigger—further intertwined his artistic vision with the enduring legacy of African American music, literature, and architectural symbolism.

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Visitors are encouraged to grab an album and listen while they eat, study, and create.

Hunt's Biomorphic Inspiration

The decision to locate The Hunt at the University of Chicago is deeply rooted in history. Hunt’s artistic odyssey is inextricably linked to the intellectual, geographical, and architectural landscape of the university. Born just blocks from the southern edge of the campus in West Woodlawn, Hunt navigated the rigid racial boundaries of segregated Chicago, viewing the university campus as a profound space of exploration and intellectual inspiration.

Between 1951 and 1957, while studying at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Hunt worked as an animal caretaker and laboratory technician at UChicago’s Zoological Experimental Laboratory. This daily contact with animal biology and skeletal structures provided the foundation for his biomorphic visual syntax—a brilliant synthesis of organic growth and mechanical form.

He observed aquatic life at Botany Pond, which inspired early linear-spatial masterpieces like Construction A (1956), and routinely scavenged discarded industrial materials from university basement cleanouts. Utilizing the direct-metal technique, Hunt transformed the "metal garbage of an industrial age" into high art. The bulging, expressive eyes of his breakthrough 1956 sculpture, Arachne, acquired by the Museum of Modern Art when Hunt was just 21, were fabricated from the splayed steel shades of two discarded UChicago goose-neck desk lamps.

Richard Hunt's Why? and Becoming on UChicago's campus

Throughout his career, Hunt transformed rigid steel and bronze into soaring, flame-like structures of ascension. He drew profound inspiration from the university’s central emblem, the phoenix, viewing its mythological metamorphosis as a cultural metaphor for the resilience and transcendent spirit of the African American experience. As his practice evolved into large-scale public commissions, UChicago became a permanent home to his art, from the sweeping 12-foot cast-bronze Why? (1974) at the Smart Museum of Art to the late-career welded bronze Becoming (2020) at the Disciples Divinity House.

By anchoring The Hunt on the South Side, we ensure that students, faculty, and the surrounding community will take daily inspiration from one of America's most important sculptors—an artist who was fundamentally shaped by the University of Chicago, and who went on to shape the landscape of modern art and public monuments throughout the country.

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Learn more about Richard Hunt's connections to the University of Chicago.