Pure Oil Sign in Landscape near Marion, Alabama
Artist
William Christenberry
(American, 1936 - 2016)
Date1977 (printed 1988)
Mediumchromogenic print
DimensionsImage: 3 1/4 × 4 3/4 in. (8.3 × 12.1 cm)
Support: 8 × 10 in. (20.3 × 25.4 cm)
Mat: 11 × 14 in. (27.9 × 35.6 cm)
Support: 8 × 10 in. (20.3 × 25.4 cm)
Mat: 11 × 14 in. (27.9 × 35.6 cm)
ClassificationsPhotograph
Credit LineGift of John Robertshaw III, 2016
Object number2016.24.6
DescriptionRural landscape with grass and vegetation in foreground with circular advertising sign on rusty pole. Sign is white with blue circular border and blue letters at center reading “P U R E”. Road cuts diagonally from lower right corner to middle background with heavy treeline on both sides of it at middle- and background. Blue sky with puffy white clouds throughout.Text Entries
The photograph was made with a Kodak
Brownie camera.
Born
in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Christenberry moved away but was always returning to
the rural counties of the state, often photographing the same site year after
year. The distinctive landscape of the South was an important character in his
photographs and like photographer Walker Evans, who also photographed in rural Alabama,
Christenberry had a great affection for vernacular signage and American
advertising graphics. This common oil sign would have been an everday roadside
sight but also carries a nostalgic charge and a message of purity.
On View
Not on view
Joan Myers
2001 (printed 2017)
Walker Evans
1936 (printed 1971)
