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January 18, 2006
WSJ profiles David Adickes
This Wall Street Journal ($) article profiles Houston sculptor David Adickes, who specializes in huge works such as the sculpture of Sam Houston on I-45 just outside of Huntsville about 60 miles north of downtown Houston. In recent months, Adickes has been working on erecting a 60-foot-tall statue of Stephen F. Austin in Brazoria County, a project that Banjo Jones has been following closely (scroll down to 10.26.05 pictures), but the WSJ reports that Adickes is contemplating an even more ambitious project -- a 280-foot-tall cowboy (equivalent to a 23 story building) that Adickes envisions standing next to one of the Texas' busiest freeways.
Alas, the Journal reports that Adickes' creations have not brought him much critical acclaim:
Mr. Adickes's statues don't bring him much approval in the world of serious art. The sculptor's skillful, Titan-sized likenesses of historical figures may have a big "gee-whiz" factor, but they're of "minimal aesthetic interest," says University of Kansas professor of art history David Cateforis. He likens Mr. Adickes's statues to such artifacts of roadside Americana as the 80-foot-high Uniroyal tire outside Detroit.
Nevertheless, that noted Houston art critic -- heart surgeon Denton Cooley -- defends Adickes' creations:
Famed Houston heart surgeon Denton Cooley, who is the subject of one of Mr. Adickes's more life-size (8-foot) statues in Houston's Texas Medical Center, sees genius in Mr. Adickes's enormous scale."Some of the great wonders of the world are big things like that," he notes.
Posted by Tom at January 18, 2006 4:36 AM
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