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A s your Smythson turns t o S e p t e m b e r, o u r town gets the art fair it deserves. Read our guide to Untitled Art, Houston ( T h u r s d a y t h ro u g h Sunday, September 18 through 21, at George R. Brown Convention Center), on page 44. Discover on page 50 what to see and experience beyond the walls of GRB — 30 days of viewing that herald the inaugural Houston Arts Month. Untitled's director, noted L.A.-based writer and curator Michael Slenske, was drawn to Houston by the rich history and depth of our scene. With this in mind, we dedicate this month's column to four greats whose recent passing leaves behind something more profound than sadness. The creative lives of artists David Adickes, Ibsen Espada, H.J. Bott, and patron Henry Hunt serve as inspiration for us all to support Houston's close-knit art community — a unique place driven more by hometown stars and longstanding relationships than a frenzied, billionaire-focused art market. All four men were iconoclasts whose personalities allowed them to become elemental spokes in our spinning art universe. Of the four, David Adickes is perhaps best known — no surprise for the Pop sculptor of mammoth presidential heads, a 67-feet-tall Sam Houston roadside OBSESSIONS. DECORATION. SALIENT FACTS. Art Notes attraction en route to Dallas, an outsized violin virtuosi holding court at Lyric Centre, and We Love Houston. The latter really says it all about its maker's joie de vivre; it, along with Be Someone, stands as official slogans for our city. Yes, there are other sides to the career of the nearly 100-year-old artist — as painter of prairie-style cubism and best seller to the River Oaks set back in the day at the influential DuBose Gallery, and as founder of Love Street Light Circus Feel Good Machine, inspired by the groovy light shows and hippy vibe of San Francisco's Fillmore West. But the delightful Adickes — who could spin a good tale about his illustrious encounters and adventures, from post-war Paris study with Fernand Léger to a road trip that involved Salvador Dalí and British lady hitchhikers — will always be remembered as the talent whose epic dreams aligned in proportions as monumental as his Pop paeans in concrete. (Collectors will often find Adickes' canvases at Reeves Art + Design and Foltz Fine Art.) We also salute the memory of Puerto Rican-raised Ibsen Espada, a Texas painter who was one of the breakout stars of the milestone "Fresh Paint: The Houston School" 40 years ago, followed two years later by the 1987 national touring exhibition "Hispanic Art in the United States: Thirty Contemporary Painters and Sculptors," both presented at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Espada forged his own bold yet lyrical gestural abstraction and was an artist's artist — both respected and collected, a beloved and dynamic figure on the scene. During his 50-year career, he showed at a range of important Houston galleries and art spaces and, within the past decade, at Foltz Fine Art, which represents his estate. N e x t , w e recall the great H.J. Bott, an i d i o s y n c r a t i c talent whose w i d e - r a n g i n g and brilliant perambulations include painting, sculpture, black- light architectural interventions, and a robot opera. I followed his career for three decades and considered H.J. and his wife Margaret prized friends; his exhibitions at Anya Tish Gallery were never to be missed. Bott was one of the most original artists working in Texas in the second half of the 20th century. However, despite robust sales and discovery by a younger generation of creatives whom he mentored, Bott's quirky geometric Displacement-of-Volume principle and its extraordinary translation into wild and varying media — faux fur, chewing gum, Beanie Babies, talking robots, dizzying pin- striped canvases, and kids' Connector sets — have not yet received their appropriate due in Texas and on the national radar. He was our Alfred Jensen and deserves a show at Dia like Jensen had. Finally, we bid adieu to Henry Hunt — a collector, connoisseur, and community connecter who was, in his gentlemanly and understated way, at the center of the Houston art world. He was the life partner of gifted arts writer Donna Tennant, and their presence amounted to a benediction for any gallery show or artist studio they visited. Hunt's prowess as a graphic designer, former university gallery director, and student of history added to his cultured presence, knowing eye, and perfect wit, combining to convey an ineffable elan to every conversation and interaction. May Hunt be reunited with Adickes, Bott, and Espada in a celestial realm to continue the dialogue. Catherine D. Anspon SUERAYA SHAHEEN R A C H E L S O L A R - R E A L T O R ® | 7 1 3 . 4 1 6 . 1 6 0 0 | R A C H E L . S O L A R @ S I R . C O M | R A C H E L S O L A R . C O M Superior service shouldn't be a luxury. H.J. Bott, 2009 34