I visited the Smithsonian American Art Museum this President's Day weekend to see the William Christenberry show. I've been a big fan of his work since I was introduced to it by my brilliant undergrad professor, and even more so since I had the good fortune of meeting Mr. Christenberry at the lab I used to work at in DC. Always a most pleasant and polite gentleman, brimming with Southern warmth, I became more entranced by his work. In 2006 I caught two of his shows at Aperture and Pace/MacGill in New York, saw him speak at Aperture, and caught his NPR interview. He's having a big year.
This show at the recently renovated American Art Museum is couched in the Folk Art area, a collection that was curated by Mr. Christenberry himself, at the request of the Smithsonian. As you approach the Folk Art wing, you are greeted with the curator's text above a vitrine holding one lovely handmade piece each by Mr. Christenberry Sr, Mr. Christenberry Jr., and his son Andrew Christenberry. As you turn into the exhibit you see his "Sprott Church" sculpture and a grouping of his "Dream Buildings", all white and resembling the Washington Monument, set into a dark blue alcove with a curved ceiling. The whole exhibit is smallish, but holds some of his greatest sculptures, paintings and photographs. In a career spanning some 45 years his photography starts with his beloved Brownie prints, and progresses into gorgeous large prints from his 8x10 camera. I particularly loved the pair in the far back of the exhibit that shows a pear tree on an overcast winter day, naked and lonely, contrasted with itself in spring or summer, full of fruit and waiting as a deep storm cloud rolls in.
Meandering through DC on the way home, we popped in to Transformer Gallery, a wonderful incubator of an art gallery/project space, where we caught photographs by an old aquaintance Lely Constantinople, and Antonia Tricarico. Lely has been photographing the crumbling corners of DC for years, including the citizens and the debris of our nation's capitol. She included also some ghostly black and whites of her family and friends on the beach, which filled me with a nostalgia for things I've never had.