William Andrew Christenberry, Jr., most known for his intimate photographs of crumbling rural buildings and almost violently verdant landscape of his native West Alabama, which made him one of the most respected and influential artists of the modern South, died at the age of 80. His teaching career spanned decades at the Corcoran School of Arts and Design in Washington.
While much of his art captured isolated elements of life from Akron to Greensboro, in Hale County,Alabama; he also focused some of his work on the Ku Klux Klan, a subject he found vexing, through mixed media formats; while also painting and sculpting throughout a 50-year career in West Alabama; Memphis, Tennessee; New York City; and Washington, DC. In his 2013 book “The Storied South,” William R. Ferris, a scholar of Southern culture and former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, named Mr. Christenberry one of the three most important photographers of the South, along with Walker Evans and William Eggleston. Bill Christenberry was to ALABAMA what Eudora Welty and William Faulkner were to MISSISSIPPI.
His work can be found in numerous public collections, including those of the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of Art in New York, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Menil Collection in Houston, and the Sarah Moody Museum of Art at UA. His art was often featured in books of his own works and others, with pieces in the collections of the Corcoran Gallery (now part of the National Gallery of Art), the Smithsonian American Art Museum, DC, and many other museums, small and large.
Among his awards were a Guggenheim fellowship in 1984 and an honorary doctorate of humane letters from his UA alma mater in 1998.
Christenberry, a University of Alabama Graduate, was survived by his wife of 49 years, Sandra Deane Christenberry; 3 children, Emlyn, Andrew and Kate; five grandchildren; one brother, John Christenberry of Dallas, TX, and innumerable relatives. Family and friends were invited to call at Joseph Gawler's Sons, LLC, Washington, DC on Saturday, December 3, 2016, but Mr. Christenberry was buried in his native Southern soil at Tuscaloosa, Alabama, December 17, adjacent to his parents, after a memorial service there. He was predeceased by his younger sister, Danyle Christenberry Maughan, and parents: William A. Christenberry, and Ruby Willard Smith Christenberry of Greensboro and Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
While much of his art captured isolated elements of life from Akron to Greensboro, in Hale County,Alabama; he also focused some of his work on the Ku Klux Klan, a subject he found vexing, through mixed media formats; while also painting and sculpting throughout a 50-year career in West Alabama; Memphis, Tennessee; New York City; and Washington, DC. In his 2013 book “The Storied South,” William R. Ferris, a scholar of Southern culture and former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, named Mr. Christenberry one of the three most important photographers of the South, along with Walker Evans and William Eggleston. Bill Christenberry was to ALABAMA what Eudora Welty and William Faulkner were to MISSISSIPPI.
His work can be found in numerous public collections, including those of the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of Art in New York, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Menil Collection in Houston, and the Sarah Moody Museum of Art at UA. His art was often featured in books of his own works and others, with pieces in the collections of the Corcoran Gallery (now part of the National Gallery of Art), the Smithsonian American Art Museum, DC, and many other museums, small and large.
Among his awards were a Guggenheim fellowship in 1984 and an honorary doctorate of humane letters from his UA alma mater in 1998.
Christenberry, a University of Alabama Graduate, was survived by his wife of 49 years, Sandra Deane Christenberry; 3 children, Emlyn, Andrew and Kate; five grandchildren; one brother, John Christenberry of Dallas, TX, and innumerable relatives. Family and friends were invited to call at Joseph Gawler's Sons, LLC, Washington, DC on Saturday, December 3, 2016, but Mr. Christenberry was buried in his native Southern soil at Tuscaloosa, Alabama, December 17, adjacent to his parents, after a memorial service there. He was predeceased by his younger sister, Danyle Christenberry Maughan, and parents: William A. Christenberry, and Ruby Willard Smith Christenberry of Greensboro and Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
William Andrew Christenberry, Jr., most known for his intimate photographs of crumbling rural buildings and almost violently verdant landscape of his native West Alabama, which made him one of the most respected and influential artists of the modern South, died at the age of 80. His teaching career spanned decades at the Corcoran School of Arts and Design in Washington.
While much of his art captured isolated elements of life from Akron to Greensboro, in Hale County,Alabama; he also focused some of his work on the Ku Klux Klan, a subject he found vexing, through mixed media formats; while also painting and sculpting throughout a 50-year career in West Alabama; Memphis, Tennessee; New York City; and Washington, DC. In his 2013 book “The Storied South,” William R. Ferris, a scholar of Southern culture and former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, named Mr. Christenberry one of the three most important photographers of the South, along with Walker Evans and William Eggleston. Bill Christenberry was to ALABAMA what Eudora Welty and William Faulkner were to MISSISSIPPI.
His work can be found in numerous public collections, including those of the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of Art in New York, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Menil Collection in Houston, and the Sarah Moody Museum of Art at UA. His art was often featured in books of his own works and others, with pieces in the collections of the Corcoran Gallery (now part of the National Gallery of Art), the Smithsonian American Art Museum, DC, and many other museums, small and large.
Among his awards were a Guggenheim fellowship in 1984 and an honorary doctorate of humane letters from his UA alma mater in 1998.
Christenberry, a University of Alabama Graduate, was survived by his wife of 49 years, Sandra Deane Christenberry; 3 children, Emlyn, Andrew and Kate; five grandchildren; one brother, John Christenberry of Dallas, TX, and innumerable relatives. Family and friends were invited to call at Joseph Gawler's Sons, LLC, Washington, DC on Saturday, December 3, 2016, but Mr. Christenberry was buried in his native Southern soil at Tuscaloosa, Alabama, December 17, adjacent to his parents, after a memorial service there. He was predeceased by his younger sister, Danyle Christenberry Maughan, and parents: William A. Christenberry, and Ruby Willard Smith Christenberry of Greensboro and Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
While much of his art captured isolated elements of life from Akron to Greensboro, in Hale County,Alabama; he also focused some of his work on the Ku Klux Klan, a subject he found vexing, through mixed media formats; while also painting and sculpting throughout a 50-year career in West Alabama; Memphis, Tennessee; New York City; and Washington, DC. In his 2013 book “The Storied South,” William R. Ferris, a scholar of Southern culture and former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, named Mr. Christenberry one of the three most important photographers of the South, along with Walker Evans and William Eggleston. Bill Christenberry was to ALABAMA what Eudora Welty and William Faulkner were to MISSISSIPPI.
His work can be found in numerous public collections, including those of the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of Art in New York, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Menil Collection in Houston, and the Sarah Moody Museum of Art at UA. His art was often featured in books of his own works and others, with pieces in the collections of the Corcoran Gallery (now part of the National Gallery of Art), the Smithsonian American Art Museum, DC, and many other museums, small and large.
Among his awards were a Guggenheim fellowship in 1984 and an honorary doctorate of humane letters from his UA alma mater in 1998.
Christenberry, a University of Alabama Graduate, was survived by his wife of 49 years, Sandra Deane Christenberry; 3 children, Emlyn, Andrew and Kate; five grandchildren; one brother, John Christenberry of Dallas, TX, and innumerable relatives. Family and friends were invited to call at Joseph Gawler's Sons, LLC, Washington, DC on Saturday, December 3, 2016, but Mr. Christenberry was buried in his native Southern soil at Tuscaloosa, Alabama, December 17, adjacent to his parents, after a memorial service there. He was predeceased by his younger sister, Danyle Christenberry Maughan, and parents: William A. Christenberry, and Ruby Willard Smith Christenberry of Greensboro and Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
