Academy Art Museum

When David Hickman died from multiple sclerosis in 2011, he graciously left over 30 paintings by Greg Mort to the Academy Art Museum making it the largest public repository of the artist’s work. Born and raised in Centreville, MD, he felt this museum was the perfect home for his collection. Hickman first viewed Greg Mort’s paintings in 1981 in an art show sponsored by his law firm and he instantly made a connection with the art. Soon after, he began exclusively collecting Mort’s art. The two connected on an intellectual level, sharing a love of scientific concepts and how they relate to space and the universe.

For nearly three decades the patron and the artist became true friends and conversed about a multitude of shared interests: science, cosmology, politics, humor, movies, and fine art. When Hickman created the Promised Gift, in 2011 he said about this gift, “I thought that since I was born at Easton Memorial Hospital, just down the street from the Museum, this would be a nice circle. My idea is that the work is now available to a wide audience. And the people will have the opportunity to experience the magic of Mort’s executions. This wide audience makes me feel great.”

This exhibition is the second of selections from the Hickman gift.