Ascension Academy

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 ones 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.

93.48