Overview
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In this abridged version of an illustrated lecture given at Emory University on February 26, 2007, artist William Christenberry introduces major themes in his work and presents examples from more than forty years of photography, drawing, painting, and sculpture centered upon his home state of Alabama.
Place, Time, and Memory
Part 2: Christenberry discusses works that reveal the passage of time and the workings of nature upon buildings and landscapes
Part 3: Christenberry discusses origins and intentions of “Klan Tableau,” the creation of “Dream Buildings,” and recent sculptures
About William Christenberry
Born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on November 5, 1936, William Christenberry is a painter, photographer, and sculptor whose work draws upon the subject matter of Alabama—from gourd trees, landscapes, vernacular buildings, and red dirt to the terror of the Ku Klux Klan—to create art that speaks to such broad themes as the depopulation of the rural landscape, the effects of time's passage upon the material world, the hubris of monumentality, and the fatal attractions of evil. A graduate of the University of Alabama, Christenberry has lived in Washington, DC, since 1968, teaching drawing and painting at the Corcoran College of Art and Design. An enormously productive and prolific artist, his work is widely exhibited and collected by major museums and galleries in the United States and in Europe.
Recommended Resources
Cravens, Richard. William Christenberry: Southern Photographs. New York: Aperture, 1983.
Gruber, J. Richard. William Christenberry: Art and Family. New Orleans: University of New Orleans, 2000.
———. William Christenberry: The Early Years, 1954-1986. Augusta, GA: Morris Museum of Art, 1996.
Lange, Susanne, Claudia Schubert, and Allen Tullos. William Christenberry: Disappearing Places. Dusseldorf: Richter Verlag, 2002.
Southall, Thomas W. Of Time and Place: Walker Evans and William Christenberry. San Francisco: Friends of Photography; and Fort Worth, TX: Amon Carter Museum, 1990.
William Christenberry. Foreword by Elizabeth Broun, with essays by Walter Hopps, Howard N. Fox, and Andy Grundberg. New York: Aperture, 2006.
William Christenberry: Works on Paper. Tucson, AZ: Nazraeli Press; Washington, DC: Hemphill Fine Arts, 2005.
Wilner Stack, Trudy, William Christenberry, Allen Tullos. Christenberry: Reconstruction, the Art of William Christenberry. Tucson, AZ: Center for Creative Photography; Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1996.
Video Documentary
Staniski, Stanley J. William A. Christenberry, Jr.: A Portrait. Washington, DC: Staniski Media, 1997.
Links
Christenberry Online
http://www.christenberryonline.com/.
Norris, Michele. "Christenberry Photos Capture the Changing South," All Things Considered. National Public Radio, Aug 3, 2006. Audio and images.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5613101.
"William Christenberry." Lens Culture book review and audio commentary. http://www.lensculture.com/christenberry.html.
