When I snapped a picture of David Adickes’ latest installation, on I-10 just north of downtown, I assumed (Adickes being a Presidential-sculpture guy and all) that all four of the giant heads on display belonged to US Presidents. I see now that this was a wrong assumption. Page 53 of the May edition of 002 Magazine has the explanation:
These four men are nicknamed “Mount Rush Hour,” Adickes tells us, “but its real title is Tribute to American Statesmanship. I define a statesman as someone who cares more for the country than his/her own political career. And Lawd knows, we need some. The four figures: Washington, Lincoln, Houston, and Stephen F. Austin were truly statesmen.”
OK then. My identification of the two on the left as Franklin Pierce and Martin Van Buren didn’t make much sense from that perspective, so I’m glad to have this cleared up. And a tip of the hat to Jeff N for not being as blinkered as I was and calling the Sam Houston bust correctly.
Dude, you seriously don’t know what Sam Houston is supposed to look like?
Yes, I know what Sam Houston looks like. But I think of Adickes as a guy who does Presidential heads, so I was looking for Presidents to match those busts to. You have to admit, Martin Van Buren is a reasonable facsimile. It was just me having an incorrect context for finding matches.