William Christenberry: Photographs, 1961-2005 Opens Feb. 12 at Reynolda House Museum of American Art

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"William Christenberry: Photographs, 1961-2005" Opens Feb. 12 at Reynolda House Museum of American Art

Thursday, January 28, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Sharyn Turner
336.758.5580
sturner@reynoldahouse.org
or Sarah R. Smith
336.758.5524
manselss@reynoldahouse.org

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (January 15, 2010) Reynolda House Museum of American Art will host a series of events in conjunction with the exhibition "William Christenberry: Photographs, 1961–2005," beginning with an opening reception on Friday, Feb. 12 from 7 to 9 p.m. The reception is open to the general public, and admission is free for members and students and $5 for non-members. It includes refreshments, a cash bar, and entrance to both the exhibition and the main floor of the historic house.

At 8 p.m., Reynolda After Hours presents a performance by the Winston-Salem State University Burke Singers, a female a cappella vocal ensemble nationally recognized for its interpretation of African American sacred music, songs of the civil rights movement, and political awareness songs. Reynolda After Hours organizes museum events geared toward young professionals.

"William Christenberry: Photographs, 1961–2005" will be on view in the museum's Babcock Wing Gallery through June 27, 2010. It includes 58 photographs, one sculpture, and three signs, which chronicle the effects of the passage of time on the buildings, back roads, and landmarks in rural Hale County, Alabama, the artist's former home.

Aperture, a not-for-profit organization devoted to photography and the visual arts, has organized this traveling exhibition and produced the accompanying publications.

Reynolda House received support for the exhibition from lead sponsor Hawthorn, a Member of the PNC Financial Services Group. This exhibition was also supported by the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Exhibition Events
Additional exhibition-related events include noon video screenings on Feb. 18, Feb. 25, Mar. 4 and Mar. 25 of "William A. Christenberry, Jr.: a Portrait." This insightful, hour-long documentary follows artist William Christenberry as he travels to his home of Hale County, Alabama. He discusses the influences and genesis of his creative practice, describing his photographs, sculpture, and installation pieces as parts of one cohesive body of work rather than as separate entities. The film is free to members and students and free to non-members with museum admission.

A talk by the artist will take place on Tuesday, Mar. 23 at 5:30 p.m. Locations, memories, and anecdotes are integral to understanding Christenberry's body of work. Each building he documents during repeated visits to Hale County, Alabama has a story to tell, and over time Christenberry has learned the stories of the people who live in and among them. His public talks are celebrated as performances that provide essential insights to his work. Admission for members and students is $8, non-members $12.

A concert for voice and piano entitled "Songs in the Rearview Mirror" will have its world premiere at Reynolda House on Friday, Mar. 26 at 8 p.m. It will feature a cycle of songs by North Carolina composer Kenneth Frazelle. Part road trip, part reflection on photography, and part childhood reminiscence, "Songs in the Rearview Mirror" is an evocative and haunting portrait of the South through song. The Reynolda House premiere will be performed by Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Laurelyn Dossett of the musical duo Polecat Creek. Admission for members and students is $8, non-members $12.

On Friday, Apr. 9 at 8 p.m. and Saturday, Apr. 10 at 2 p.m., a staged reading will be held of "All Over Alabama, the Lamps Are Out." In the summer of 1936, writer James Agee and photographer Walker Evans spent a month with three tenant families in Alabama, on assignment for Fortune magazine to deliver an article about the "problem" of sharecropping in the South. The resulting book, "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men," with Agee's text and Evans's images, is widely regarded as an American masterpiece, an enduring testament of the Depression, and a primary inspiration for the photographer William Christenberry. Playwright Frank Levering, founder of the Orchard Theatre and writer of poetry, screenplays, a memoir, and several works of nonfiction, has adapted the work in this original drama. Admission for members and students is $8, non-members $12.

In addition, there will be several spring Portals of Discovery continuing education courses related to the exhibition. They include "Portals Unabridged: Six Stories by Flannery O'Connor," "How to Watch a Movie: The South in Film," and "Digital Photography: Landscapes." For dates, times, fees, and to register, please visit reynoldahouse.org or call 758-5900.

Reynolda House Museum of American Art is one of the nation's premier American art museums, with masterpieces by Mary Cassatt, Frederic Church, Jacob Lawrence, Georgia O'Keeffe and Gilbert Stuart among its permanent collection. Affiliated with Wake Forest University, Reynolda House features traveling and original exhibitions, concerts, lectures, classes, film screenings and other events. The museum is located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in the historic 1917 estate of Katharine Smith Reynolds and her husband, Richard Joshua Reynolds, founder of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. Reynolda House and adjacent Reynolda Gardens and Reynolda Village feature a spectacular public garden, dining, shopping and walking trails. For more information, please visit reynoldahouse.org or call 336.758.5150.

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Photos available upon request.

Download RH_WilliamChristenberry2010-1.doc