Christo
As both designer and producer, Christo surrounded himself with a trusted team. His in situ interventions enable him to reveal elements of everyday life to the public. Whether working with furniture, historic monuments, or vast landscapes, he adapts and composes with his environment.
This exhibition highlights how Christo delighted in shifting scale, moving from the wrapping of a two-seater sofa (Wrapped couch, 1973) to the transcontinental installation of giant umbrellas forming two forests—one blue, the other yellow—separated by the Pacific Ocean (The Umbrellas, 1984–1991). He worked across different settings—natural or urban, aerial (Wrapped Trees, 1997–1998) or lacustrine (The Floating Piers, 2014–2016).
The extraordinary ambition of some projects sometimes ran up against local authorities (Over the River, 1992–2017, unrealized). It should be recalled, however, that Christo and Jeanne-Claude always favored self-financing, and that their works were not political in intent—with the notable exception of Wrapped Reichstag (1971–1995), in support of the democratic system.
A total of eleven original works are currently exhibited for sale. Most incorporate collages using photographs by Wolfgang Volz, topographic maps, and fabric samples. Some form polyptychs, composed of several juxtaposed panels. Others resemble maquettes—relief-like project studies in which material rises out of the drawing, as for example the yellow or blue canopy of the umbrellas set against a Californian valley (in yellow) or a Japanese valley (in blue).
The realization of the Paris project L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped, sixty years after the first sketches, allows one to hope for the completion of The Mastaba—a project for Abu Dhabi initiated in 1977—of which a drawing dated “1978” can be seen at M.A.K. Galerie.