Christo and Jeanne-Claude Works and Projects 1958-2006

■ Christo’s handwritten exhibition title and the museum’s logo were used in this exhibition.

From the press release of the exhibition :
The Gates, Central Park, New York City, 1979-2006, a project realized last spring in New York City’s Central Park after more than 20 years of negotiation, is the first time that an exhibition of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s works and projects has been held in New York City. The project was a huge success, attracting more than four million visitors in just two weeks. At the same time, this work notified art fans around the world that this artist, who continues to be one of the most unique artists in the world of contemporary art, is still alive and well, and further reminded them of the powerful power that the “beauty” he creates has, drawing in all who see and experience it.

This lecture in Japan and the “Christo and Jeanne-Claude 1958-2006” exhibition were made possible with the full cooperation of the artist himself, and guest curated by New York-based art critic Masa Yanagi, who has worked with them for over a quarter of a century and has been involved as staff member in many of their projects.

As the title “1958-2006” suggests, this exhibition includes important works produced in the very year that Christo, who fled his native Bulgaria, passing through the Czech Republic and Austria before arriving in Paris, began producing wrapped objects and packages. The work, titled Wrapped Cans and a Bottle 1958-1959, is the starting point of their art, The work consists of five objects: two cans wrapped in canvas, two cans painted with black lacquer, and a bottle filled with pigment. (These works have long been displayed in Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s home and are therefore very meaningful to them.)

In addition, Package and Wrapped Magazines, objects created in the 1960s and 1970s, which are rarely seen in Japan, are also scheduled to be exhibited. The exhibition also includes storefront drawings and multiple works, which he produced intensively after moving to New York in 1963. This series, in which the glass surfaces of shop windows are covered with cloth or paper, is an important precursor to his later Valley Curtains and Running Fences.

These early works mark the starting point of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s creative history, but Christo’s creative endeavors were not limited to the small, restricted space of his studio. It was around 1961 that he met and began collaborating with Jeanne-Claude, who became his partner in life, and expanded his creative space into outdoor everyday spaces. Needless to say, this eventually gave them a firm place in the contemporary art world.

Their projects, i.e., outdoor, temporary works of art, which began with Dockside Package in Cologne in 1961 and Wall of Oil Barrels – The Iron Curtain in Paris in 1962, have expanded in various ways since the late 1960s and have been realized not only in the United States but also in Australia, Germany, France, Japan and other countries.

However, these projects usually only exist for two weeks, and in exceptional cases for a few months, so only a lucky few art fans have had the chance to see and experience them. (In 1968, two separate projects were put in place at roughly the same time in Bern, Switzerland, and Spoleto, Italy, so Christo, who was in Bern, never got to see the Spoleto project, and Jeanne-Claude from Spoleto never got to see the on in Bern.)

Therefore, all we can do now is simulate the experience of the project through Christo’s drawings made during the project’s conception stage and through photographs and other documentary images of the realized project. This exhibition will feature works like Wrapped Kunsthalle, Bern, 1968, their first project for a wrapped public building, in addition to Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s major projects, including original drawings and collages by Christo, as well as photographs by their in-house photographer Wolfgang Volz and others.

Other works in this exhibition will include:

• Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Wrapped, 1969
• Wrapped Coast, Little Bay, Australia, 1969
• Valley Curtain, Rifle, Colorado, 1970-1972
• Running Fence, Sonoma and Marin Counties, California, 1972-1976
• Surrounded Islands, Biscayne Bay, Greater Miami, Florida, 1980-1983
• The Umbrellas, Japan – U.S.A., 1984-1991
• Wrapped Reichstag, Berlin, 1974-1995
• The Gates, Central Park, New York City, 1979-2006

Christo began learning drawing from a private art tutor before entering elementary school, and using the skills he acquired during his academic art education in Bulgaria, his drawings embody ideas for projects that defy people’s imagination, and are both conceptualizations for projects and independent works of art. His outstanding descriptive ability is sure to astonish many art fans.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s latest project, Over the River, Project for Arkansas River, State of Colorado, will also be on display, including the latest drawings created this year. In addition, the exhibition will feature prints of a selection of works selected from the many projects that have been conceived and negotiations have begun for The Museum of Modern Art-Wrapped, which was not yet realized.

■ Christo and Jeanne-Claude official website http://christojeanneclaude.net/