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Life of Legacy
David AdickesPaul & Joan Culp
By Julia May
Legacy Award Winners
A noted artist, David Adickes, and two long-time supporters of the arts, Paul and Joan Culp, have been selected for the College of Arts and Media’s Legacy Award for 2023-24. The award celebrates individuals whose outstanding career accomplishments and arts service have built a legacy for Sam Houston State University students. It was established by Ronald E. Shields, former dean of CAM, in 2018.
David Adickes
Although David Adickes is recognized and respected as a successful painter, he is probably best known for his larger-than-life public art works, including the 67-foottall sculpture of Texas hero Sam Houston on Interstate 45.
A Huntsville, Texas native, Adickes served as a member of the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II. He was assigned to a flight crew that regularly flew back and forth between New York and Paris. Each assignment allowed about three days of downtime in Paris, and his love for art increased each time he was able to take in the sights and the sounds of the city. In fact, he has noted that seeing Paris for the first time was a life-changing experience.
Initially leaning toward a career in aerial photography, he could not ignore his attraction to creating art which had surfaced when he was younger. At the age of 14, he was introduced to oil painting. His first works included painted portraits of his father, Frank Sinatra and a selfportrait from a photograph.
After the war, he returned to Huntsville and enrolled in SHSU to complete his education. However instead of working on a degree in art, he decided to get a Bachelor of Science degree in physics and math which he earned in 1948.
“I wanted the first degree I could get,” Adickes said, “and I had more hours in math and physics than anything else.”
It is truly a landmark, an icon.
Knowing that his true calling was in art, Adickes turned his attention to learning as much as he could about the subject. He enrolled at the Kansas City Art Institute then traveled to Paris to study at the Atelier Fernand Leger for two years. After completing his studies, he returned to Texas where taught art for two years at the University of Texas Austin. He then traveled internationally while continuing to study art and painting. He eventually settled in the south of France where he divided his time between his home there and a home in Houston for many years.
He achieved a reputation as an established painter of musicians, figures and landscapes in the Houston area during the 1950s and ’60s. His desire to create continued to drive him, and Adickes became well known in the 1980s as a successful creator of monumental concrete sculptures. Some of his best known works, many of which are on display in Houston, include a statue of the Beatles on display at the 8th Wonder Brewery, his 36-foot-tall
steel and concrete sculpture of a cellist entitled Virtuoso currently at Houston’s Lyric Tower Building, and 43 giant heads of U.S. presidents. Both George H. W. Bush and his son, George W. Bush, were live models for the project—the elder Bush at the White House and Bush 43 at Adickes’s Houston studio.
Sam Houston State University is the school from which I graduated. Not only is it the place where I received my education, it is where I made so many close friends.
Each of his pieces have special meaning for him, and he puts his heart into all of his works. Undeniably, though, his favorite creation is A Tribute to Courage, the 67-foottall statue of Sam Houston on Interstate 45 just south of Huntsville. Adickes designed and created the sculpture in 1994 to commemorate the bicentennial birthday of Sam Houston. “It is truly a landmark,” he said, “an icon.”
With a lifetime of accomplishments, Adickes has remained connected to his alma mater as demonstrated by his works that have been on display throughout campus and his appearances at various university events. Each day on the way to classes or to study in the Newton Gresham Library, Sam Houston State University students pass Adickes’s 20-foot-tall statue of Sam Houston standing in the central part of campus between the Lowman Student Center and the Smith-Hutson Business Building. The statue was donated in 2008 by fellow SHSU alumnus Ron Mafrige to honor both Adickes and Lt. Col. M.B. Etheredge and is a replica of the 67-foot statue on Interstate 45.
“Sam Houston State University is the school from which I graduated,” he said. “Not only is it the place where I received my education, it is where I made so many close friends.”
Create. Create. Create. Make sketches of new ideas. Keep the oof ones: discard the others.
He has toured the university’s Hoyt Fine Arts Building the 71,500-square-foot building completed in 2019 that now houses the university’s visual arts program. He says there is no comparison with the new state-of-the-art building and the classrooms where he studied art while in college. “It’s a far cry from Mae Schow’s rooms in the old Estill Library Building,” he said.
Adickes encourages young art students just starting out to follow his example and work hard.
“Create. Create. Create,” he said. “Make sketches of new ideas. Keep the good ones; discard the others.”
Adickes hopes he will be seen as artist who left behind a plethora of art (paintings and sculptures) that will bring pleasure to thousands of people for centuries to come. In recognition of his distinguished career and life of service, CAM is pleased to honor David Adickes with the Legacy Award.
Paul and Joan Culp
For more than half a century, Paul and Joan Culp have been avid supporters of the arts at Sam Houston State University in a variety of meaningful ways.
Paul was a member of the university library staff for 38 years. He is probably best remembered for his time at SHSU as special collections librarian for the Thomason Room on the top floor of the library building where sculptures, paintings and rare books are protected, either because of their age or value.
“The Thomason Room is actually a small museum with display cases, rare items, paintings on the walls, and other Texas treasures,” he said.
Paul came to SHSU five years after the mid-century modern-style Newton Gresham Library was completed. Although the building had beautiful views looking out of its massive windows, the interior was bare and stark.
“The book collection wasn’t as large as it is now,” he said. “The books had been moved from the much smaller Estill Library to this huge four-story building. In fact the building was so empty that when weekend librarians had their duty, they could hear students roller skating on the fourth floor.”
Paul felt that placing art inside the building would make it more welcoming and give the building a warmer appeal.
“I have always been somewhat of an art appreciation buff, and I knew some members of the art faculty on campus,” he said. “During the ’70s and ’80s, the university had some of the most distinguished art faculty in the country including Charles Pebworth, who was the State of Texas Artist of the Year twice, and Harry Ahysen, also a State Artist of the Year.”
We have always enjoyed attending concerts in the School of Music, and it has been especially rewarding to see how the level of performance has gotten better through the years.
Culp began by asking the art faculty to consider donating some of their works to the library, and they enthusiastically complied.
Among the works is a magnificent, colorful totem pole, created by Pebworth, which was placed in the library’s central stairwell. He also designed and created a stunning wood and metal sculpture (pictured right) located on the second floor.
Because of Paul’s vision, the library now has a collection of Texas art which will be the springboard for a large special art collection in the future with a focus on works by Southeast Texas artists.
Paul also developed an appreciation for music as a young boy. “I grew up in Abilene where three church-affiliated colleges are located,” he said. “They all had music departments and they would bring musicians to their campuses to perform. The performances ranged from opera to symphony, and I would go to concerts, so I was exposed to serious music from an early age.”
Joan, too, was introduced to music at an early age. She grew up on a large farm in Australia where music was an important part of her family’s life. After she became an adult, she traveled internationally and spent time in Switzerland, India, Iran, and several countries in Asia, learning about different cultures and hearing beautiful and inspirational music native to those countries.
The Culps met in Sydney, where Paul was pursuing a graduate degree in library science at the University of New
SHSU is responsible for so many outstanding events. One could go to campus almost every night and enjoy a performance or program.
South Wales. They married and came to the United States a year later. They established their home in Huntsville with Paul working as a librarian at Sam Houston State and Joan working as a kindergarten teacher. She returned to school and earned a graduate degree in library science at SHSU, which led to a career as an elementary school librarian at Stewart Elementary.
Both are devoted supporters of the SHSU Friends of Music and have been for many years.
“We have always enjoyed attending concerts in the School of Music, and it has been especially rewarding to see how the level of performances has gotten better and better through the years,” Paul said. “The recruitment of talented students is truly remarkable, and it is notable that we now have several international students in the program who are being invited to perform all over the world.”
Because of the cultural advantages offered by Sam Houston State University, the Culps made the decision long ago to keep their permanent residence in Huntsville.
“I wouldn’t want to live in a town of any size that didn’t have university attractions,” Paul said. “SHSU is responsible for so many outstanding events. One could go to campus almost every night and enjoy a performance or program.”
Because of their long time involvement with education and literacy at the elementary and university levels, in addition to the impact they have made by supporting and promoting music and the arts at Sam Houston State University, CAM is pleased to honor Paul and Joan Culp with the Legacy Award.
Read more from CAM Magazine: 6th Edition
