13 Facts About William Christenberry

William Christenberry is best known for his haunting compositions of landscapes, signs, and abandoned buildings in his home state.

William Christenberry's father tried to attend college but found it too expensive and spent his life working as a delivery man for a bakery and a salesman of dairy and insurance.

William Christenberry's mother, Ruby Willard Smith, was a tax assessor and homemaker; she created textiles which went on to become family heirlooms.

William Christenberry was originally influenced by Abstract expressionism and his studies under Melville Price, but later found himself more attracted to the type of realism attributed to Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg.

William Christenberry only stayed in New York for fourteen months before he took a job teaching in Memphis.

In 1968, the Christenberrys moved to Washington, DC, so William could take a teaching position at the Corcoran College of Art and Design.

Shortly after beginning a professorship at Corcoran College, William Christenberry began making annual visits to Hale County during the summer to visit family, explore and take photographs.

On one occasion in 1973, Walker Evans, who had encouraged William Christenberry to take his photographs seriously, accompanied him.

In 1974, William Christenberry began translating some of these photographed buildings into detailed sculptures that accurately reproduce their state of decay and patina.

On many of these trips, William Christenberry collected old advertising signs and other found objects which inspired him.

William Christenberry largely reconstructed the room, which is filled with paintings, found objects, drawings, sculptures, dioramas, and a series of fabric dolls of Klansmen in their hooded robes.

William Christenberry died in Washington, DC, on November 28,2016, from complications of the disease.

William Christenberry's work has been exhibited in solo and group shows around the world and is the subject of several monographs.