generation gaps
"Odd couple" David Adickes and Taft McWhorter come together for uniquecollaborative art show
As artistic collaborators, legendary Houston sculptor David Adickes and Texas painter Taft McWhorter are an unlikely pair.
One is 85, while the other is barely into his 40s.
One is primarily a figurative artist, while the other takes on abstraction.
One has enjoyed a steady career spanning six full decades, while the other feels he is still only starting to develop his own style.
But like all the other odd couples before them, the two artists are fueled by their quirky differences, channeling their varied perspectives into a series of new collaborative paintings on view in Come Together, a one-night exhibit starting at 7 p.m. on Saturday at Summer Street Studios.
"We met about four years ago and became friends almost immediately," McWhorter told CultureMap in a recent interview. "Ever since, we've been meeting for lunch on a regular basis to talk about our art and our lives."
"I recently came across this picture of Priscilla [Presley] sitting with her father," David Adickes said. "Right above the couch , you can see one of my paintings."
The artists have worked together on a number of projects in the past, he said, but never on the same canvases.
"David had these unfinished cubist paintings sitting in his studio. One day, he handed some of them to me and said 'see what you can do with these.'"
In the end, the shared works manage to find a common ground that exists between Adickes' muted forms and sharp gestural paint drips of his younger friend.
"It's wonderful to be recognized by such an established and renowned artist," McWhorter noted. "David's twice my age and has worked for decades . . . The stories this guy has are amazing."
Adickes' life as an artist is filled with some impressive moments — from attending Picasso's 80th birthday party to swimming with Salvador Dalí to having his work on the cover of the Life Magazine's final print edition.
Several years ago, Adickes purchased the high school he attended in Huntsville during the 1940s. With the help of several studio assistants, he told CultureMap he has been restoring and modifying the building to house more than 1,000 pieces of his work spanning the breadth of his career. He plans to open the museum next month.
As such, Adickes has been attempting to acquire some of his early canvases from the 1950s and 60s, two of which recently resurfaced from the Elvis Presley estate.
"I recently came across this picture of Priscilla sitting with her father," he said. "Right above the couch, you can see one of my paintings."
At Saturday's event, Adickes will display the two works — one of a bullfighter and the other showing three figures on a beach — but warned that they would not be for sale. Both he and McWhorter each will show about 20 of their own, non-collaborative paintings.
