Memory is a Strange Bell: The Art of William Christenberry
Perhaps no other artist in the American South engaged more deeply and consistently with the concepts of time, place and memory through their art than William Christenberry. For half a century, the artist made annual pilgrimages from Washington, D.C. home to Hale County, Alabama, documenting the landscape, signage and vernacular architecture transformed by the passage of time. Through a focused examination of particular structures – the Palmist Building, the Green Warehouse, the Abandoned House near Montgomery (Ghost Form) – Christenberry created mythic symbols of a changing culture, and very personal symbols of a life lived fully. “They are not self-portraits,” he said, “but they are everything I know.”
All images copyright the Estate of William Christenberry
