“It is the genius of William Christenberry to
stir up intensely evocative emotions and meanings from common, even humble,
pieces of the world.”
— Howard N. Fox, curator of modern and contemporary art, Los Angeles
County Museum of Art
If you call the current comprehensive exhibition of William
Christenberry's work a "retrospective," he will politely correct
you with his charming Southern drawl: "It's not a retrospective,
because I'm not dead yet."
Nevertheless, the show at the Smithsonian, and the accompanying
book by Aperture, show the artist and his evolutions and variations and
recurrent themes in near encyclopedic form. We discover his strong reliance
on photography dating from his first photographs from 1961 (used primarily
as source material for his painting and sculpture), through his instant
leap from a brownie camera to an 8 x 10 view camera (at the insistence
of his friend Lee Friedlander) in the mid 1970s.
His professional interests have remained intensely personal throughout
his career. He values vernacular architecture and signs from the southern
United States. And he continues to document these kinds of subjects year
after year, to show the deterioration and changes brought about by time
and nature and human intervention.
The book itself is beautifully designed and printed. The sequencing of
material allows you the shock of recognition at the passing of 20-plus
years of time, year by year, of some of the same subject matter. And we
are able to experience how a talented painter and sculptor like Christenberry
can use these captured fleeting moments of time to create paintings, sculptures
and collages.Christenberry spoke to an audience of photography enthusiasts
on December 1, 2006 at a presentation for San Francisco's PhotoAlliance
and Aperture West. Here you can listen to some choice bits from that presentation:
William Christenberry audio:
About bringing photography into his practice as a painter and sculptor:
and personal anecdotes about some of his iconic images: Green Warehouse,
BBQ Inn, Red Building in Forest, Coca-Cola Sign, Door with Christmas Lights,
plus comments about current work of dreamlike sculptures of imaginary
Southern Monuments.
— Jim Casper
InterviewWilliam ChristenberryA year-long retrospective of Christenberry’s work is on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington. Aperture has also published a new book of his life’s work. Here, we share a representative portfolio of his work, accompanied by a 17 minute audio commentary by...View Images
Interview
William Christenberry
A year-long retrospective of Christenberry’s work is on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington. Aperture has also published a new book of his life’s work. Here, we share a representative portfolio of his work, accompanied by a 17 minute audio commentary by...
William Christenberry
A year-long retrospective of Christenberry’s work is on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington. Aperture has also published a new book of his life’s work. Here, we share a representative portfolio of his work, accompanied by a 17 minute audio commentary by Christenberry himself.
Trending this Week
Call Me Heena: Hijra, The Third Gender
“I feel like a mermaid. My body tells me that I am a man but my soul tells me that I am a woman…” A penetrating, multi-year report on a unique group of people—who fall outside of Western notions of gender—trying to carve out a...
Announcing the 2019 Street Photography Award Winners!
Discover 39 remarkable photographers who are using photography to capture and share their unique perspective from the streets around them.
The Transformative Power of Photography & Text
By combining poetic prose and pre-existing photographs, this artist duo expands the possibilities for visualizing our emotions and memories through storytelling.
The Wretched and the Earth
Documenting the tragic bond between the plight of refugees and the environmental crisis in Cox’s Bazar, Gabriele Cecconi presents a different perspective on the biggest challenges our society faces today.
Days of Night/Nights of Day
Daily life, work and play, in the northernmost city in the world, Norilsk, Russia (also the 7th most polluted city in the world) — a fascinating, detailed photo report with 45 exquisite images.
Domestic Rituals and Real Life Dramas
In a new exhibition at Copenhagen Photo Festival, photographer Mary Frey demonstrates the timeless deception of photography.
Related
The Fourth Wall: Stages
While we usually think of the theater from the perspective of the audience—and gaze upon the stage from a distance—this series turns our view on its head, bringing the camera to the other side, the inside, of the “Fourth Wall.”
Imperial Pomp
A series of fantastical architectural and environmental curiosities found across the former USSR—photos which speak to these areas’ unsteady mixture between authoritarian power, deep-set poverty and bursts of monumental extravagance.
Metamorpolis: the Insatiable Sprawl of Chongqing
In one of the world’s fastest growing cities, the tensions of rapid urbanization are present everywhere you look: from concrete taking over nature to a formerly rural population trying to adjust to a wholly new way of life.
Studio 54
Caught in brilliant flash after flash — the 1978-80’s hedonistic decadence of the rich, beautiful and glamorous posers and actors who claimed this famed nightclub as their playground and parade ground.
The Tree of Life: Indonesia’s Mangroves Torn Asunder
“If mangrove trees had blood, the 54,000 km of Indonesian coastline would be indelibly stained with red.” An important photoessay exploring the consequences of increased seafood production on unique, delicate mangrove ecosystems.
Nobody Likes to be Hindered by Worldly Troubles
The millennia-old landscape paintings of a famed Chinese artist, combined with a Korean legend, serve as dual inspirations for this poetic, surreal series of contemporary photographs.