Terry Adkins

by Lorna Simpson

"In his sculpture, performance, photography, and video, Terry Adkins (1953-2014) transformed found materials, archival imagery, and reclaimed actions in a process he called potential disclosure. His provocative art and ideas often pay homage to the legacies of enigmatic figures such as John Coltrane, Bessie Smith, W. E. B. Du Bois, John Brown, and Matthew Henson. Adkins's creative research intended to resuscitate his chosen subjects from historical erasure, and to shed light on willfully neglected or lesser-known aspects of their biographies. This book includes new writings, archival essays...