Planar Mountain

Planar Mountain dates from 1971, just three years after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and less than ten years after the Civil Rights Act outlawed racial discrimination. Hunt, a Black sculptor working in cities experiencing racial tension, addressed these issues. Some of his most powerful work was site specific, such as his memorial at the site of King’s assassination. Hunt said, “Public sculpture responds to the dynamics of a community, or of those in it, who have a use for sculpture. It is this aspect of use, of utility, that gives public sculpture its vital and lively place in the public mind.”

In 1969, Hunt became the first Black artist to ever receive a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, and he remains one of the most prolific and noteworthy American sculptors of our time. Planar Mountain is dedicated to Tufts Professor T. J. Anderson, the Austin Fletcher Professor of Music Emeritus. Anderson taught at Tufts from 1972-1990, and has written more than 80 musical compositions. He is a founder and the first president of the National Black Music Caucus and is the recipient of awards from the National Association for the Study and Performance of African music, the Music South Corporation, and several honorary degrees. Like Hunt, Anderson was a leading and influential Black artist. The two men were not only contemporaries, but close friends and sometimes collaborators. Each had an appreciation for the other’s work and medium—Hunt’s mother instilled in him a love of classical music and black opera as a child, and Anderson often debuted new work in performances in Hunt’s studio. Planar Mountain is a fitting tribute to a friend and a prompt to consider the relationships between nature, industry, humanity, and the landscapes we inhabit.

Image: Richard Hunt, American, b. 1935, Planar Mountain, 1971. Cor-ten steel. Tufts University Permanent Collection, Gift of Miriam R. Spertus, A85P, A92P in Honor of Music Professor, T.J. Anderson. 1987.3.