the Obama Foundation announced the commission of the sculpture "Book Bird" for the Barack Obama Presidential Center. The sculpture is an elaboration from a piece Hunt created as an award to supporters of the United Negro College Fund. "This beautiful piece encapsulates the progress one can make through reading—embodying the inspiration we hope all young people take away when they visit the Obama Presidential Center." – Obama Foundation “I’ve been a huge admirer of your work for a long time, and Michelle has as well.” – President Barack Obama to sculptor Richard Hunt Getty Research Institute Acquires Richard Hunt Archive The Getty Research Institute acquired the archive of Richard Hunt in October 2022. The Richard Hunt archive contains approximately 800 linear feet of detailed notes and correspondence, notebooks, sketchbooks, photographic documentation, financial records, research, ephemera, blueprints, posters, drawings, and lithographs, as well as a selection of wax models for public sculptures. “Richard Hunt is one of the foremost American artists of the mid- to late-20th century,” says LeRonn Brooks, associate curator for modern and contemporary collections. “I am thrilled that Getty, whom I first became affiliated with through my participation in the Getty Center for Education in the Arts during the 1980s, will be the home of my archive,” says Richard Hunt. “The entirety of my papers, photographs, letters, and sketches trace the arc of my career and my contribution to art history. I hope that my archive will serve not only as a remembrance but an inspiration to others.” Statements by Richard Hunt In some works it is my intention to develop the kind of forms nature might create if only heat and steel were available to her. A sculptor can be thought of as the sort of person who can reduce impressions of things, responses, and ideas about things into sculptural forms. Sometimes these sculptural forms are simply sculptural forms; sometimes these forms can be formed into sculptures. The creation of a sculpture can be considered the process by which a sculptor demonstrates to himself whether or not he is creating a sculpture. Everything that exists, natural or man made, contains some sculptural quality or property. I try to appropriate the sculpturalness of any of these forms into my work whenever they seem a reasonable extension of my current vocabulary of forms. One hopes to see from what has been done, what can be done.One of the central