Meet the Beatles?

Houston’s old artist friend David Adickes is shifting his focus from painting back to the monumental sculpture that he’s known for. Even if you’re unacquainted with Adickes and his neartown studio littered with giant busts of all forty-three presidents, you’d surely recognize the gigantic Sam Houston statue, his most famous work as well as our favorite part of making the trip to Dallas.

Adickes has decided to take his work in a new direction though. To the delight of all madcap roadside art fans, his next project is to construct monolithic sculptures of all four Beatles, to be placed along I-10 near Shepherd. Adickes has purchased the land himself, as well as several other freeway-side plots in the area, near his studio. On one of these plots he intends to place his upcoming “Mount Rush Hour,” four statues of yet-to-be-named historical Texas figures. At 79, it is likely that Adickes, whose whimsical work has made him more popular with the public than with art critics, will make these his last projects. Controversy has risen over his Beatles project because there is no defined connection to Texas or the area, as one might expect. But we think it’s clear that huge construction along I-10 is Houston’s trademark.

More of Adickes’ work can be seen in downtown Houston, in front of the Lyric Center, as well as in Angleton at the Henry W. Munson Park. Perhaps Texas icons should take precedence over Beatlemania, but we say more power to anyone with such a penchant for public art.