07/22/2026
William Christenberry | Artist Highlight
Artist William Christenberry (1936-2016) moved through different media with uncommon ease. Born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Christenberry initially studied painting and earned a Master of Arts in Painting from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa in 1959. However, at the encouragement of his friend and mentor Walker Evans, Christenberry’s artistic focus shifted to photography in the early 1960s. By the mid-1960s, Christenberry was working primarily in photography and found object sculpture. In 1974, he began crafting “building constructions,” freestanding sculptures inspired by architectural structures, dwellings, churches, and stores, located in his home state. Six years later, he commenced the “Southern Monuments” sculpture series. Christenberry’s “Southern Monuments” series recalls the histories and cultures of the American South, as well as explores themes of time, place, and memory. For Christenberry, a monument did not have to be grand, nor did it have to be made of traditional bronze or marble. Rather, in his own words, he sought to “evoke a feeling of a monument, albeit a somewhat abstract one that one might find in the landscape.” For Southern Monument XXII (1989), which is currently on view at Moody Gallery, Christenberry crafted a box-like structure out of repurposed, rusted steel. Scattered around and in this structure, which rests in red soil that Christenberry collected from Alabama, there are symbolically charged objects: a gourd, ladder, and cannonball. The artist associated these objects with his homeland, using them as talismans to conjure feelings and evoke a sense of place. Today, works from the “Southern Monuments” series are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Yale University Art Gallery, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Phillips Collection, the Birmingham Museum of Art, the Hunter Museum of American Art, and the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.
Exhibition history:
The Kreeger Museum, Washington D.C., 20th Anniversary Exhibition, February 20 - July 31, 2014
Hemphill, Washington D.C., William Christenberry, June 10 - August 1, 2015
Hemphill, Washington D.C., William Christenberry, November 10, 2020 - January 16, 2021
Additional works by William Christenberry can be viewed here- https://www.moodygallery.com/artists/william-christenberry
