Ascension Academy
Artist
Terry Adkins
(American, 1953 - 2014)
CultureAmerican
Date1989
MediumWood and pigment
DimensionsOverall: 16 x 61 x 10 1/4 in. (40.6 x 154.9 x 26 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase with Funds from the Virginia Commission for Arts Grant and Art Purchase Fund
Object number93.48
Not on view
DescriptionThis is a wood and pigment sculpture.Label TextTerry Adkins American, 1953–2014 Ascension Academy, 1989 Wood and pigment This subtle, abstract work represents a personal narrative from the artist’s life. Raised in the 1960s during school desegregation, Terry Adkins was the first African American to attend Ascension Academy in Alexandria, Virginia. The school, he said, “allowed me to acquire a sense of myself that didn’t even deal with the idea of being inferior but also didn’t deal with the idea of being superior either. It made me, very early on, able to see that, [as] Dr. King would say…the ‘content of one’s character’ is what matters most.” The gentle curves of this sculpture evoke the embrace and acceptance Adkins felt at the school, while the symmetrical form recalls a church altar with the soft, golden hues reminiscent of radiant liturgical objects. Museum purchase with funds from the Virginia Commission for Arts Grant and Art Purchase Fund 93.48 Exhibition HistoryGalerie Andy Jilien, Zürich, Switzerland, 1989 (Exhibition catalogue essay by Sandra Miller. Cat. No. 13, reproduced in color). Anderson Gallery, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, October 28 - December 23, 1990 (Exhibition catalogue essays by Anne Barclay Morgan, Steven S. High and Terry Adkins). "Terry Adkins", Parameters, The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA, October 17, 1993 - January 2, 1994 (No. 1 on brochure checklist). "Terry Adkins: Infinity is Always Less Than One," Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, May 17-September 23, 2018. “Terry Adkins: Resounding,” Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St. Louis, MO, March 13 – August 2, 2020. Published ReferencesStephanie Weissberg and Heather Alexis Smith, _Terry Adkins: Resounding_, exh. cat., Pulitzer Arts Foundation in association with Lucia-Marquand, Seattle, 2020, 54.
