Exhibitions, Fall 2007

		William Christenberry, American, b. 1936. Untitled, June 11, 2006 German ink with two brushes on paper, 40 x 30 inches Image © the Artist, Courtesy of the artist and Hemphill Fine Arts, Washington DC

William Christenberry
Site/Possession
October 19 - December 23

Organized by Andrea Douglas, the Museum's curator of collections and exhibitions, in close collaboration with the artist, this traveling exhibition offers a re-evaluation of the artist's intent, focusing on how his rarely exhibited drawings form the basis and inspiration of all his other work. Through their primary motif, Southern gourd trees (trees on which gourds are suspended), one infers the artist's sense of drawing as primal, and it is through their daily rendering that Christenberry accesses both the vitality and transient nature of memory that is further expressed in his other work. In addition to approximately 50 drawings the exhibition features paintings, photographs, constructions, dream buildings, and the Klan Room Tableau.

Christenberry's imagery focuses on Hale County, Alabama, and the site's relationship to the Klan is historically and personally significant to him. By the second rising of the Klan in the 1920s, the state of Alabama was considered to be the most completely Klan-controlled state in the Union. The organization's influence there continued well into the 1970s and certainly was pervasive when Christenberry, out of curiosity, attempted to enter a Klan meeting in Tuscaloosa in the 1960s. The combined feelings of terror and bewilderment that resulted have fueled a fertile amount of artistic production concerning this subject. While the 200 or so dolls that comprised the original tableau, stolen from the artist's studio in 1979, suggest an intensive consideration of the Klan, the abundance of the subsequent tableau reveals more thoroughly the way in which Christenberry grapples with the dichotomy between public and private knowledge of a singular place and event. In the tableau he viscerally forces the viewer to deal with humanity's moments of evil and violence.

The Museum is grateful to many organizations and members of our community, both in the University and beyond, who have helped to develop educational programs and outreach for this and the other two Southern legacy exhibitions.

The exhibition is made possible with the generous support of the FUNd, the Oakwood Foundation, the Glenstone Foundation, the Council for the Arts, the Arts Enhancement Fund, Barbara and Richard S. Lane, Irwin and Linda Berman, the Virginia Commission for the Arts, Dr. Robert L. and Lucinda W. Bunnen, Soul of Virginia Magazine, Yvette Kraft, and additional anonymous support.

Final Friday Reception
& Gladys S. Blizzard Gallery Talk
by William Christenberry

Friday, October 26, 4:30 pm
In the Museum
Reception follows, 5:30 - 7:30 pm