This rare, historic work by sculptor Richard Hunt traces its origins back to a seminal moment in the artist’s career. Hunt made the work in 1955, while he was a third year student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). Hunt was not a sculpture major at SAIC. His interests were in sculpting with welded metal, but that was not something that the school offered a major in. Hunt therefore studied art education while taking craft metal working classes as well, and simultaneously taught himself welded metal sculpting at home. In 1953, he saw the exhibition Sculpture of the 20th Century, which among other artists featured the work of Spanish sculptor Julio Gonzales. Hunt was inspired by the way Gonzales seemed to be drawing three dimensional compositions in space with metal. In his home studio, he embarked on experiments inspired by the same ambition, taking on a range of subjects, from biomorphic abstract compositions to more figurative works based on skeletal forms. This sculpture belongs to a small series of works he did in the ensuing years featuring figures engaged in lyrical, acrobatic exercises. In a Smithsonian Living History Interview conducted in 1979, Hunt recalled this time in his life when he was formulating what would soon become his mature aesthetic voice. Said Hunt, ”the first things I did in metal were soldered metal things and were sort of skeletal figures […] a number of them which were kind of acrobats and I'd incorporate different kinds of construction. [...] Around then I saw things that were abstract that interested me and sort of determined to try my hand at it, you know. Kind of abstraction from the figure, you know, or from organic kinds of things. And also things that were just more geometric, lines, planes, things like that. It was also a way of practicing welding, too. So it sort of developed along that line.”