Past Exhibitions
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William Christenberry: Time & Texture
October 14, 2018–April 14, 2019
A pioneer of color photography, William Christenberry dedicated his career to articulating the unique character of his native Hale County, Alabama.
For four decades beginning in the 1960s, Christenberry photographed the vernacular architecture and rural landscape of central Alabama on an annual basis, creating a prolonged study of place and the passing of time. This exhibition includes more than 100 photographs by Christenberry and is drawn entirely from the High’s collection.
Selected Images
Click on an image below to learn more.
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Palmist BuildingPalmist Building
William Christenberry (American, 1936–2016), Palmist Building, 1961–1988, printed 2014, pigmented inkjet print. High Museum of Art, Atlanta, gift of the artist, 2014.111.13.
The Palmist Building is one of the most iconic structures in Christenberry’s extensive body of work. When he was a child, the clapboard building was a general store operated by his great uncle, but it was later home to a palm reader. The inverted hand-painted sign that covers a broken window initially enticed him to photograph the building in 1961.
His earliest photographs pinpoint the sign itself and the peeling whitewash around it. As he became more engrossed in the project, Christenberry carefully examined the relationship of the building to its surroundings, particularly the chinaberry tree that eventually engulfed it.
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Cotton Gin Ruin (View I). Greensboro. AlabamaCotton Gin Ruin (View I). Greensboro. Alabama
William Christenberry (American, 1936–2016), Cotton Gin Ruin (View I). Greensboro. Alabama, 2002, printed 2004, dye coupler print. High Museum of Art, Atlanta, gift of the artist, 2014.104
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Green Warehouse (Close View of Rear), Newbern, AlabamaGreen Warehouse (Close View of Rear), Newbern, Alabama
William Christenberry (American, 1936–2016), Green Warehouse (Close View of Rear), Newbern, Alabama, 1988, printed ca. 2001, dye coupler print. High Museum of Art, Atlanta, gift of the artist, 2014.108
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Coleman's CafeColeman's Cafe
William Christenberry (American, 1936–2016), Coleman’s Cafe, 1967–1996, printed 2014, pigmented inkjet print. High Museum of Art, Atlanta, gift of the artist, 2014.112.1
Christenberry systematically photographed the same buildings over the course of many years. Once he had accumulated a critical mass, he would arrange the photographs in grids to illustrate the passage of time and the effects of nature on human-made structures. In the exhibition, the grid’s rigid stability stands in contrast to the slow degradation of a roadside shop that succumbed to neglect and eventual collapse once it had outlived its usefulness.
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5 Cents, Demopolis, Alabama5 Cents, Demopolis, Alabama
William Christenberry (American, 1936–2016), 5 Cents, Demopolis, Alabama, 1976, printed 1981, dye imbibition print. High Museum of Art, Atlanta, purchase with funds from Robert Yellowlees, 2014.119.
Christenberry belonged to a generation of artists who, in the late 1950s and early ’60s, challenged the strict divisions between fine art and popular visual culture. Where Andy Warhol appropriated images of mass-produced products and Jasper Johns gesturally rendered common iconography, Christenberry turned to the ubiquitous signage painted on the sides of buildings and posted along rural roads across Hale County. He sought to catalogue the conventions present in corporately issued logos as well as the individual flourishes of hand-painted signs, as on this grocery store.
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Side of Warehouse. Newbern. AlabamaSide of Warehouse. Newbern. Alabama
William Christenberry (American, 1936–2016), Side of Warehouse. Newbern. Alabama, 1980, printed 1987, dye coupler print. High Museum of Art, Atlanta, purchase with funds from Robert Yellowlees, 2014.126.
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Church, Sprott, AlabamaChurch, Sprott, Alabama
William Christenberry (American, 1936–2016), Church, Sprott, Alabama, 1981, printed 2013, pigmented inkjet print. High Museum of Art, Atlanta, purchase with funds from Robert Yellowlees, 2014.136.
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China Grove Church, Hale County, AlabamaChina Grove Church, Hale County, Alabama
William Christenberry (American, 1936–2016), China Grove Church, Hale County, Alabama, 1979, printed 1999, dye coupler print. High Museum of Art, Atlanta, purchase with funds from Robert Yellowlees, 2014.130.
Christenberry was inspired to examine the familiar terrain of his childhood after reading Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, photographer Walker Evans and writer James Agee’s lyrical study of the lives of Hale County tenant farmers in the throes of the Great Depression.
The book, originally published in 1941, was re-issued in 1960 as Christenberry came of age as an artist. While he was taken with Evans’s direct and rational photographs, it was Agee’s evocative prose that caused him to consider the red clay roads and humble clapboard buildings of rural Alabama as a rich source of creative material.
VIDEO
William Christenberry: Time & Texture is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta
This exhibition is made possible by
Premier Exhibition Series Partner
Exhibition Series Sponsors
Premier Exhibition Series Supporter
The Antinori Foundation
Sarah and Jim Kennedy
Louise Sams and Jerome Grilhot
Benefactor Exhibition Series Supporter
Anne Cox Chambers Foundation
Ambassador Exhibition Supporters
Tom and Susan Wardell
Rod Westmoreland
Contributing Exhibition Series Supporters
The Ron and Lisa Brill Family Charitable Trust
Lucinda W. Bunnen
Corporate Environments
Marcia and John Donnell
W. Daniel Ebersole and Sarah Eby-Ebersole
Peggy Foreman
Robin and Hilton Howell
Mr. and Mrs. Baxter Jones
Margot and Danny McCaul
Generous support is also provided by
Alfred and Adele Davis Exhibition Endowment Fund, Anne Cox Chambers Exhibition Fund, Barbara Stewart Exhibition Fund, Marjorie and Carter Crittenden, Dorothy Smith Hopkins Exhibition Endowment Fund, Eleanor McDonald Storza Exhibition Endowment Fund, The Fay and Barrett Howell Exhibition Fund, Forward Arts Foundation Exhibition Endowment Fund, Helen S. Lanier Endowment Fund, Isobel Anne Fraser–Nancy Fraser Parker Exhibition Endowment Fund, John H. and Wilhelmina D. Harland Exhibition Endowment Fund, Katherine Murphy Riley Special Exhibition Endowment Fund, Margaretta Taylor Exhibition Fund, Massey Charitable Trust, RJR Nabisco Exhibition Endowment Fund, and Dr. Diane L. Wisebram