David Pryor Adickes ( ; born 1927, Huntsville, Texas) is a

modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

sculptor and painter. His most famous work is the 67-foot tall ''

A Tribute to Courage ''A Tribute to Courage'' monument is a statue of Sam Houston located in Huntsville, Texas (where Sam Houston lived and died), which is 65 miles north of the city of Houston (named in his honor). Sam Houston is one of the founding fathers of Texas ...

'' statue of

Sam Houston Samuel Houston (, ; March 2, 1793 – July 26, 1863) was an American general and statesman who played an important role in the Texas Revolution. He served as the first and third president of the Republic of Texas and was one of the first two i ...

Huntsville, Texas Huntsville is a city in and the county seat of Walker County, Texas. The population was 45,941 as of the 2020 census. It is the center of the Huntsville micropolitan area. Huntsville is in the East Texas Piney Woods on Interstate 45 and home to ...

Life and career

Adickes was born in

in 1927. In 1949, Adickes travelled to France to study under

Fernand Léger Joseph Fernand Henri Léger (; February 4, 1881 – August 17, 1955) was a French painting, painter, sculpture, sculptor, and film director, filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of cubism (known as "tubism") which he gradually ...

. After two years, he returned to Texas and began presenting his work. In 1955, Adickes was commissioned to paint a large historical mural of the city for the then-new Houston Club. That fall, he was hired to teach in the Art Department of the University of Texas at Austin. In 1983, after being a fulltime painter and art instructor for more than two decades, Adickes was commissioned to make his first monumental sculpture. He created the ''Virtuoso'', a 36-foot steel and concrete statue of a string trio. It is displayed in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

. In 1986, he created ''

Cornet The cornet (, ) is a brass instrument similar to the trumpet but distinguished from it by its conical bore, more compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B, though there is also a sopr ...

'' as a stage prop for the New Orleans World Fair. In 1994, he created ''A Tribute to Courage'' in memory of

's namesake,

. In 2004, he created 43 large busts of

American presidents The president of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States, indirectly elected to a four-year term via the Electoral College. The officeholder leads the executive branch of the federal government an ...

at Presidents Park, Virginia. In 2006, he erected 60-foot statue of

Stephen F. Austin Stephen Fuller Austin (November 3, 1793 – December 27, 1836) was an American-born empresario. Known as the "Father of Texas" and the founder of Anglo Texas,Hatch (1999), p. 43. he led the second and, ultimately, the successful colonization ...

Brazoria County Brazoria County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, the population of the county was 372,031. The county seat is Angleton. Brazoria County is included in the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land metropolitan statis ...

, Texas. In 2012, he turned his old high school in

Huntsville Huntsville is a city in Madison County, Limestone County, and Morgan County, Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Madison County. Located in the Appalachian region of northern Alabama, Huntsville is the most populous city in th ...

into the Adickes Art Foundation Museum.

Gallery of selected works

File:This tribute to Texas hero Sam Houston was designed and constructed by artist David Adickes, who dedicated the statue to the City of Huntsville, Texas on October 22, 1994 LCCN2014633668.tif, ''

'' (1994)

Museum Collections

* Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont, Texas

References

External links

Living people 1927 births Sculptors from Texas {{US-sculptor-stub