William Christenberry

William Christenberry (born November 5, 1936 in Tuscaloosa) is a photographer, painter and sculptor who works with personal and mythical themes growing out of his childhood experiences in Hale County.

Christenberry received his Bachelor's (1958) and Master's (1959) degrees in fine arts from the University of Alabama, studying under noted abstract expressionist Melville Price. Since 1968 he has taught at the Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington, D.C.

His artistic career began with the painting of large abstract-expressionist canvasses, but gradually he began to be drawn to material that spoke about the place of his childhood. Though he was raised in Tuscaloosa, Christenberry spent his summers with extended family in rural Hale County. After graduating from the University of Alabama and beginning a promising, if not immediately rewarding, artistic career in New York City, he came across the 1941 book Now Let Us Praise Famous Men in which James Agee describes the experience of living among the dirt-poor farming families of Hale County during the Great Depression. Some of the photographs from the book, which were taken by Agee's collaborator Walker Evans made a deep impression on Christenberry.

Shortly after beginning a professorship at Corcoran College, Christenberry began making annual visits to Hale County in the summers to visit family and to explore and make photographs. Originally these were all made with a Kodak Brownie camera given to him as a child, but he later moved to a large format view camera in order to capture more detail. On one notable occasion in 1973, Walker Evans, who had encouraged Christenberry to take his photographs seriously, accompanied him. This was Evans' first and only return to Hale County since 1936.

One of the results of this annual pilgrimage has been a series of remarkable 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 sculptures that accurately reproduce their state of decay and patina. Although very detailed and properly proportioned, Christenberry does not refer to these creations as models as he says they are not based on precise measurements and prefers that they be called sculptures. The bases for these sculptures are often set in soil from the actual places. On many of these trips, Christenberry has collected old advertising signs and other found objects that inspire him. Some of these are incorporated into his work, while others hang in his studio.

Another series of works was provoked by a terrifying incident when, out of curiosity, he tried to attend a meeting of the Ku Klux Klan. Confronted at the door by a glaring masked figure, Christenberry fled. Though he destroyed his first two Klan paintings, the subject occupied him for many years, resulting in a dense multi-media construction adjacent to his studio that came to be known as the Klan Room, which was mysteriously burgled in 1979. Christenberry has 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.

Known more as a photographer and multi-media artist than as a painter, Christenberry continues to teach painting. His work has been exhibited in solo and group shows around the world and is the subject of several monographs.

Solo exhibitions

• Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, January 15 - March 27, 2005

References

• "William Christenberry." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 19 Feb 2008, 04:39 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 11 Mar 2008 [1].
• Christenberry, William (September 28, 2007) "Place, Time, and Memory". Southern Spaces.
• Fox, Howard N., editor (2006) "William Christenberry", Aperture
• Lange, Susanne (2002) "William Christenberry." Dusseldorf: Richter Verlag

External links

• Klan Tableau, A film documenting William Christenberry's Klan Tableau in Washington, D.C. (Includes interview with Christenberry.)
• Christenberry page at the Alabama Arts Council
• Audio commentary by Christenberry, December 2006