At first glance, the images in the blue-velvet hardcover book appear to show the home of an eccentric hoarder. Nearly every surface is covered in seemingly random objects and paraphernalia: There are piles of women’s shoes. Wigs, magnets, pins, paintings. Drums, a bass clarinet, a tambourine. Paint cans, used paintbrushes, cameras. Life-sized cutouts of Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. Pages ripped out of magazines adorn the walls, along with ads featuring Vanessa Williams and artistic prints of Marilyn Monroe.

Keep looking, though, and you’ll also see photos of one man in various life stages. In one image, his salt-and-pepper beard and moustache frame his smile while a black bucket hat and sunglasses adorn his head. In another photo, he is younger; his beard and moustache are still dark brown. He dons a tuxedo and a red bow tie and holds a drink as a woman stands next to him.

The man is the artist and Connecticut College Professor Emeritus of Studio Art Barkley L. Hendricks, who died in 2017. The woman next to him is his wife and current estate manager, Susan Hendricks ’94, who earned a degree in art history from Conn. She and Hendricks’ former student David Katzenstein ’76, a photographer, spoke at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum on Oct. 9 about their recently published book, “Barkley L. Hendricks: Piles of Inspiration Everywhere,” as well as Hendricks’ life, career, legacy and the environment that inspired him.

“Barkley was notoriously private; he didn't open his studio to anybody,” Susan told the audience of about 50 people. “There were times when he was not too thrilled to have me in there. I knew what the deal was when we married: That was his space. He felt he needed to have that private space to create whatever was going to be next on his plate. That was how he did what he did, which he did so beautifully and masterfully.”

It turns out the piles of objects featured in the book weren’t the random and forgotten stashes of a hoarder—they were “piles of inspiration” for Hendricks, a Yale-educated multimedia artist who taught at Conn from 1972 to 2010 and was known for his life-sized oil portraits of Black Americans who were his relatives, friends, acquaintances and strangers.

“The title of the book is something that Barkley said to me numerous times,” Susan explained. “Whoever is married, you know how marriage is over the years: You have your little tiffs, and it could be very frustrating living in the house with everything that he collected—shoes to Barbie dolls to paint, everything you can imagine. I would say, ‘Can't you just clean up that corner?’ and he would shrug and say, ‘Piles of inspiration everywhere, dear.’”

That inspiration yielded a prolific and in-demand output. Hendricks’ work has been featured in places like the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Tate Modern in London, and the Studio Museum in Harlem. His major retrospective, “Barkley L. Hendricks: Birth of the Cool,” featured more than 50 paintings and was on exhibition at a number of national museums from 2008 through 2010. One of his paintings was also displayed at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., for its opening in September 2016.

A portrait Hendricks painted in 1972, “Mr. Johnson (Sammy From Miami),” sold for over $4 million at Sotheby’s in December of 2020, eclipsing his previous sale record of almost $3.5 million for his 1975 double portrait, “Yocks,” set in May of 2019.

“Piles” invites the public into a space where Hendricks produced many of his creations. Through pages of vibrant photographs interspersed with quotes from and images of the artist’s handwritten journals, the book is a window into the mind of the artist, as well as where he worked and lived for 35 years with Susan.

Katzenstein took photos “as if he were walking through the house for the first time,” Susan said. “The book is laid out like a tour of the house, as if someone were visiting. Each chapter is a different part of the house.”

Conn alumnus Katzenstein is a New York-based photographer who has traveled the world to visually chronicle humanity. In 2018, he formed the nonprofit organization The Human Experience Project, which creates content to support the mission of organizations who work to inspire lifelong learning and strengthen communities. He is the managing editor of the Barkley L. Hendricks Photography Archive and the author of the books “Ritual,” “Distant Journeys,” and “Brownie,” which was published on the same day last month as “Piles.”

Katzenstein worked with the graphic designers for “Piles” on his other books and explained the benefit of the familiar collaboration. “When you're working with very creative people, and there’s a great deal of trust and openness, usually the end product comes out very well. I had complete faith in them, and they had faith in us that what [Susan and I] were going to give them was the quality they needed.”

On trusting the process with Katzenstein for creating “Piles,” Susan said, “I’m representing Barkley, and I’m presenting something to the world that nobody has ever seen before. We’re wandering into his private space, so I felt a really large responsibility for [the book] to be something that he would be proud of and that he wouldn’t take exception to.”

When an audience member asked what it was like to share a home with Hendricks, Susan said, “It was wonderful. I lived with one of the preeminent artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. I had no complaints—except occasionally when I asked him to move his piles.”