William Christenberry: Time & Texture

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.

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

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.

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.