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William Christenberry, Corn Sign with Storm Cloud, Near |
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The American South as a Universal Theme |
American Art Museum Passing Time: The Art of William Christenberry surveys past and present work features more than 60 of Christenberry’s photographs, drawings, paintings, sculptures and building constructions — some seen here for the first time. Christenberry selected both the works included in this exhibition and the adjoining installation of folk art from the museum’s permanent collection. William Christenberry (b. 1936) looks for the spirit of Southern culture in the landscape and architecture of rural Alabama. Drawing from his formal training, family traditions and a lasting relationship with his boyhood home in Alabama, Christenberry has spent the past 50 years creating a remarkable body of work that explores all aspects of life and experience. “Though his work is inspired by the American South, Christenberry’s overall themes are universal, touching on family, culture, nature and the spiritual,” said Elizabeth Broun, The Margaret and Terry Stent Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. “His artworks are poetic assessments of a sense of place, landscape, aging, memory and the passing of time.” The folk art and commercial signs that surrounded Christenberry as a child continue to influence his aesthetic sensibilities and are prominent in many of his works. Alabama Wall I, a metal construction, includes bits of collected tin signage patched together to echo his mother’s quilting. His strong sense of craftsmanship has roots in his father’s woodworking skills; his structures and monuments, such as Sprott Church, reflect the handcrafted objects and vernacular architecture of rural Alabama. Christenberry left Alabama in 1961. Though he never returned there to live, he has always related much of his work to his experiences growing up in the South. He explained, “Not because I dislike it, but because living outside it, I can see it more objectively.” Christenberry was strongly influenced by Walker Evans and James Agee’s seminal literary work Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. Evans’ straight-on photography and Agee’s penetrating poetics are wholly evident in Christenberry’s visual documents. The book, which deals with the integrity of the rural poor living through the Great Depression, was written and photographed in rural Tuscaloosa, Ala. in 1936; the year of Christenberry’s birth. Christenberry received a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from the University of Alabama in 1959. Shortly thereafter, he began experimenting with a Brownie camera and in the mid-1970s, Christenberry created his first building construction inspired by his own photographs. Christenberry teaches at the Corcoran College of Art + Design in Washington, D.C. and has received numerous awards, fellowships and grants including the Lyndhurst Foundation Prize, a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship and an Art Matters grant. In 2005 he gave a lecture titled “Southern Views” as part of the Clarice Smith Distinguished Lectures in American Art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Christenberry is represented by Hemphill Fine Arts in Washington, D.C. and Pace/MacGill Gallery in New York City. |
William Christenberry, Building with False Brick Siding, Warsaw, Alabama, 1984, Color Photograph, Collection of the artist.
William Christenberry, Building with False Brick Siding, Warsaw, Alabama, 1994, Color Photograph, Collection of the artist. |
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