William Andrew Christenberry Jr. (November 5, 1936 – November 28, 2016) was an American photographer, painter, sculptor, and teacher who drew inspiration from his childhood in

Hale County, Alabama Hale County is a county located in the west central portion of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,785. Its county seat is Greensboro. It is named in honor of Confederate officer Stephen Fowler Hale. Hale C ...

. Christenberry focused extensively on architecture, abandoned structures, nature, and extensively studied the psychology and effects of place and memory. He is best known for his haunting compositions of landscapes, signs, and abandoned buildings in his home state. Christenberry is also considered a pioneer of colored photography as an art form; he was especially encouraged in the medium by the likes of

Walker Evans Walker Evans (November 3, 1903 – April 10, 1975) was an American photographer and photojournalist best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) documenting the effects of the Great Depression. Much of Evans' work from ...

and

William Eggleston William Eggleston (born July 27, 1939) is an American photographer. He is widely credited with increasing recognition for color photography as a legitimate artistic medium. Eggleston's books include ''William Eggleston's Guide'' (1976) and ''The ...

Early life

William Andrew Christenberry Jr. was born on November 5, 1936 in

Tuscaloosa, Alabama Tuscaloosa ( ) is a city in and the seat of Tuscaloosa County in west-central Alabama, United States, on the Black Warrior River where the Gulf Coastal and Piedmont plains meet. Alabama's fifth-largest city, it had an estimated population of 1 ...

, the oldest of three children. His father tried to attend college but found it too expensive and spent his life working as a delivery man for a bakery and a salesman of dairy and insurance. His mother, Ruby Willard Smith, was a tax assessor and homemaker; she also created textiles which went on to become family heirlooms. Christenberry's grandparents on both sides operated farms in Hale County, which was where his childhood summers were spent. In 1944, Christenberry and his sister received a Brownie camera as a joint Christmas gift, a gift which would remain important throughout his career. He studied painting and sculpture at the

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a Public university, public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and la ...

in Tuscaloosa and earned his B.F.A. in 1958 and an M.F.A. in 1959. Christenberry was originally influenced by

Abstract expressionism Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...

and his studies under Melville Price, but later found himself more attracted to the type of realism attributed to

Jasper Johns Jasper Johns (born May 15, 1930) is an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker whose work is associated with abstract expressionism, Neo-Dada, and pop art. He is well known for his depictions of the American flag and other US-related top ...

and

Robert Rauschenberg Milton Ernest "Robert" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combines (1954–1964), a group of artwor ...

. His artistic career began with painting – specifically large, abstract-expressionist canvasses, but his focus and inspiration shifted to the place and memories of his childhood. After receiving his degrees Christenberry stayed at the University of Alabama for a few years as a teacher and in 1961 he encountered

James Agee James Rufus Agee ( ; November 27, 1909 – May 16, 1955) was an American novelist, journalist, poet, screenwriter and film critic. In the 1940s, writing for ''Time Magazine'', he was one of the most influential film critics in the United States. ...

and

' book, "

Let Us Now Praise Famous Men ''Let Us Now Praise Famous Men'' is a book with text by American writer James Agee and photographs by American photographer Walker Evans, first published in 1941 in the United States. The work documents the lives of impoverished tenant farmers ...

", which brought inspiration to the work Christenberry was already completing – namely his direct-address photographs of Hale County which he had started taking in 1958 with his Brownie camera (from 1944). During his time at the University of Alabama, Christenberry's teacher Melville Price, encouraged him to leave Alabama, at least for a time, to find a wider vision of the world. Thus, in 1961, he moved to New York.

Career

Christenberry only stayed in New York for fourteen months before he took a job teaching in Memphis. During his time in New York City, Christenberry produced very little art, but upon his move to Memphis his creativity took off. In his early years in Memphis, Christenberry painted large, two yards, by four yards paintings, "Fruit Stand" (1963), "Beale Street" (1964), and "Klavern 93" (1964). Then, in 1965 he met Sandy Deane, who would go on to be his wife in 1967; early in their relationship they became and remained close friends with

and his wife. In 1968, the Christenberrys moved to Washington. D.C. so William could take a teaching position at the

Corcoran College of Art and Design The Corcoran School of the Arts and Design (known as the Corcoran School or CSAD) is the professional art school of the George Washington University, in Washington, DC.Peggy McGloneUniversity names first director of Corcoran School of the Arts and ...

. Shortly after beginning a professorship at Corcoran College, Christenberry began making annual visits to Hale County during the summer to visit family, explore and take photographs. Originally these all were made with the

Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...

Brownie camera given to him as a child, while he would later move on to a large format view camera to capture more detail, he continued to use the Brownie throughout his career. On one occasion in 1973, Walker Evans, who had encouraged Christenberry to take his photographs seriously, accompanied him. This was Evans's first and only return to Hale County since 1936. One of the results of this pilgrimage was a series of photographs documenting the decay of individual structures, which are photographed as nearly isolated objects. In 1974, Christenberry began translating some of these photographed buildings into detailed sculptures that accurately reproduce their state of decay and patina. Although detailed and properly proportioned, Christenberry did not refer to these creations as models, as he says they are not based on precise measurements, and he preferred that they be called sculptures. The bases for these sculptures often are set in soil taken from these places. On many of these trips, Christenberry collected old advertising signs and other found objects which inspired him. Some of these are incorporated into his work, while others hung in his studio. Another series of works was provoked by an incident when, out of curiosity, he tried to attend a meeting of the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...

. Confronted at the door by a glaring masked figure, Christenberry fled. Although he destroyed his first two Klan paintings, the subject occupied him for many years, resulting in a dense multi-medium construction adjacent to his studio that came to be known as the "Klan Room," which was burgled mysteriously in 1979. Christenberry largely reconstructed the room, which is filled with paintings, found objects, drawings, sculptures, dioramas, and a series of fabric dolls of Klansmen in their hooded robes. Christenberry was diagnosed with

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...

in 2011. Christenberry died in Washington, D.C. on November 28, 2016 from complications of the disease. He was 80. Though known more as a photographer and multi-medium artist than as a painter, Christenberry taught painting. His work has been exhibited in solo and group shows around the world and is the subject of several monographs.

Solo exhibitions

* Rencontres de la Photographie, Arles, France, 1977 *

Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts is a museum located in Montgomery, Alabama, USA, featuring several art collections. The permanent collection includes examples of 19th- and 20th-century American paintings and sculpture, Southern regional art, Ol ...

, Montgomery, Alabama. January 15 – March 27, 2005 * ''Passing Time: The Art of William Christenberry,'' Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2006 * ''Site/Possession,'' University of Virginia Art Museum, 2007 * Columbus Museum of Art, January 16 – May 10, 2009 * Artspace at Untitled, Oklahoma City, OK, April 9 – June 26, 2010 * ''Southern Dialogue,'' Feroz Galerie, Bonn Germany, May 17 – July 19, 2013 * Fundación

Mapfre Mapfre, S.A. (, officially typeset MAPFRE) is a Spanish multinational insurance company, based in Majadahonda, Madrid. The name comes from the old mutual origin of the company (''Mutualidad de la Agrupación de Propietarios de Fincas Rústicas ...

, Madrid, September 25 – November 24, 2013. * ''Christenberry: In Alabama,''

Mobile Museum of Art The Mobile Museum of Art (MMofA) is an art museum located in Mobile, Alabama. It features extensive art collections from the United States, Europe, and non-western art. The museum hosts exhibitions, multi-disciplinary programs (including film, po ...

, Mobile, Alabama, March 10 – June 4, 2017 *''William Christenberry: Summer , Winter,'' Pace/MacGill Callery, New York City, November 3, 2016 – January 21, 2017 *''Laying-by Time: Revisiting the Works of William Christenberry,'' Maryland Institute of Art in Art, Baltimore, MD, December 9 – March 12, 2017 *William Christenberry: ''Time and Texture'', High Museum of Art – Atlanta, October 2018 – April 2019 *Memory is a Strange Bell: The Art of William Christenberry, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, October 2019 – March 2020

References

External links

William Christenberry papers, circa 1917-2018''Klan Tableau,''
– A film documenting Christenberry's Klan Tableau in Washington, D.C. Includes an interview with Christenberry.
"William Christenberry"
Pace/MacGill Gallery

*Hale, Grace Elizabeth
"Wounds, Vines, Scratches, and Names: Signs of Return in Southern Photography"
– A review of the University of Virginia Art Museum's exhibit "Southern Views/Southern Photographers," which includes work by Christenberry. ''Southern Spaces'', February 23, 2011
"William Christenberry: Working From Memory"
by Liz Jobey, ''The Guardian,'' November 20, 2008
"Place, Time, and Memory: William Christenberry"
''Southern Spaces'', September 28, 2007
''Sprott Church, Sprott, Alabama''
at

Birmingham Museum of Art The Birmingham Museum of Art is a museum in Birmingham, Alabama. It has one of the most extensive collections of artwork in the Southeastern United States, with more than 24,000 paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, and decorative arts repres ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Christenberry, William 1936 births 2016 deaths People from Tuscaloosa, Alabama University of Alabama alumni Corcoran School of the Arts and Design faculty American photographers Artists from Alabama Artists from Washington, D.C. Photographers from Washington, D.C. Neurological disease deaths in Washington, D.C. Deaths from Alzheimer's disease

Early life

Career

Solo exhibitions

References

Further reading

External links