| William Christenberry 2006July 7, 2006- August 17, 2006
APERTURE EXHIBITION COINCIDES WITH MAJOR SURVEY OF PAST AND PRESENT WORK ON VIEW AT THE SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM,
WASHINGTON D.C., FOR ONE YEAR BEGINNING JULY 1, 2006
Since the early 1960s, William Christenberry has plumbed the regional identity of the American South, focusing his attention on his hometown, Hale County, Alabama. Widely recognized as a pioneer in the field of color photography, Christenberry’s work draws inspiration from Walker Evans, while paralleling the work of international practitioners such as Bernd and Hilla Becher. Ranging from his earliest Brownie photographs to his later work with a large-format camera, William Christenberry Photographs, 1961–2005 is a survey of the artist’s poetic documentation of the southern vernacular landscape and architecture that surrounded him growing up. The exhibition, which comprises fifty vintage photographic works and one sculpture––coupling never-before-seen photographs with images that are now iconic––reveals how the history, the very story of place, is at the heart of Christenberry’s project. While the focus of his work is the American South, it touches on universal themes relating to family, culture, nature, spirituality, memory, and aging.
Reviews of William Christenberry 2006New York Times
July 28, 2006 | | Grace Glueck | | "...His unmanipulated pictures, deadpan but memory haunted (with echoes of Walker Evans), are exquisitely alert to textures, colors and telling detail...." |
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DIRECTORIES
