Houston Airports remembers monumental artist David Adickes

The legacy of a Texas giant lives on through his iconic sculptures, including those at Houston’s airports.

Jul 14, 2025

Texas lost one of its most recognizable artistic voices with the passing of David Adickes, the modernist sculptor and painter behind some of the state’s most colossal and enduring landmarks. He was 98.

Adickes, a native of Texas, was born in Huntsville in 1927. According to his website, he was best known for his towering presidential busts and the 67-foot Sam Houston statue, A Tribute to Courage, that continues to greet drivers along Interstate 45 in Huntsville. In Houston, his work lives on in concrete and steel—and in the memories of millions of travelers who pass through the city’s airports.

A statue of George H.W. Bush has stood inside Terminal C at George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) for more than two decades. Earlier this year, the beloved “We Love Houston” sculpture found a new home at William P. Hobby Airport (HOU), where it now welcomes passengers with a burst of color and civic pride. Just outside IAH, his monument to President John F. Kennedy marks a symbolic threshold between history and flight.

“David Adickes made Houston feel bigger—literally and culturally,” said Alton DuLaney, chief curator of cultural affairs for the City of Houston. “His work is more than monumental. It’s connective. You see it on the side of the freeway or in an airport terminal, and it instantly grounds you in place, in story and in scale. His legacy is cemented—quite literally—into the city’s identity.”

Photo of DuLaney and Adickes

Adickes once said he wanted his work to outlast him. In Houston, it already has.