The Boundless Ambition of Christo and Jeanne-Claude at Saatchi Gallery
Showing as part of Saatchi Gallery's Season of Sculpture, two of the medium's most ambitious practitioners get the retrospective treatment...
By
Adam Wells
December 8, 2023
Earlier this year, the vibrant sprawl of Beyond the Streets London took over the entirety of Sloane Square’s Saatchi Gallery with its brashly colourful celebration of street art history. Entering the gallery’s first floor today for Boundless, however, the space seems sparse in comparison; where once stood a collection of outfits, props and speakers now is empty, suggesting a more standard use of the gallery space. Until, that is, visitors round the first corner.
Images of l’Arc de Triomphe wrapped entirely in silvery blue fabric naturally made the rounds on social media for the two weeks in 2021 that the event took place, and for good reason; the work by artist couple Christo and Jeanne-Claude was a phenomenal undertaking 60 years in the making, and one which, tragically, neither artist survived to see actualised. For those who missed out on the sight of the Parisian landmark becoming a part of the couple’s artistic practice, Boundless is perhaps the next-best thing; displaying images of their works at a colossal, wall-engulfing size, a work which still lingers in the popular consciousness is an obvious opening to a retrospective of the artists’ career.
While the exhibition is a celebration of spectacle - as was, arguably, the entire career of Christo and Jeanne-Claude - a large portion of the gallery space is dedicated to preparatory sketches and other ephemera showcasing the meticulous planning that went into each piece of architecture-incorporating art. The keen interest of the curators in the method of wrapping these buildings is perhaps best exemplified in the caption to Wrapped Reichstag; while noting the social impact of the piece and its role as a symbol of a more open-minded, cosmopolitan government following the fall of the Berlin Wall, the year of the artwork is tellingly listed as ‘1972-1995’. Here, the artwork is not just the finished product, but also the twenty-three years of planning that went into its creation.
Later, The Valley Curtain Project, a 200,200 square foot fabric curtain spanning Grand Hogback Mountain Range in Colorado, is showcased as a highlight of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s career, despite the fact that the artists were forced to take it down after only 28 hours due to gale-force winds. This focus on the process over the finished result is not just a facet of the exhibition, but also of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s career as a whole. One of the more personal artworks on display is the piece Wrapped Payphone: credited only to Christo, the work is noted as a tribute to the couple’s various collaborators, frequently contacted by them on payphones as they scrambled around New York City. The piece serves as a literal reminder of the direct line from process to finished artwork, with one of the artists’ most valuable tools reworked with the visual style of their ‘finished’ artworks.
Also notable here is the presence of works by various collaborators and contemporaries on display throughout the exhibition, further demonstrating the importance of cooperation in Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s works. While an early caption notes that all of their projects were self-funded and self-actualised, this feels more like a statement of creative independence rather than the isolationism of ‘canonical’ artists in traditional art histories. César’s Compression, ND, for instance, highlights another sculptor who sought to represent common objects in an alienated form, while Jacques Villeglé’s torn posters of Le Ranelagh echo the everyday psychogeography of traversing a city and taking in the architecture.
Elsewhere, the torn canvases of Lucio Fontana’s Spatial Concept: Expectation imagine dimensions outside the flat surface, bridging the gap between canvas and sculpture. Such experiments with form and space - as well as Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s transformation of architectural form into colossal abstract sculpture - make Boundless a worthy participant in Saatchi Gallery’s Season of Sculpture, given the time and space it gives to experimentation within the medium.
This all leads back to the question of whether such works are as impressive in a gallery space as they are in person. However, given the inherent ephemerality of the artworks, such a retrospective would not be possible without archival documentation; The Valley Curtain Project, for instance, is impressive enough even considering its brief lifetime. A caption for the couple’s series of gates in New York’s Central Park brings attention to the fact that “the gates were not a static object: visitors could walk through them, they had no start or end point and there was no specified location from which to view them”. Such colossal works are worth appreciating from multiple temporal perspectives as well as geographical ones, and the couple’s final unfinished project The Mastaba is breathtaking even in miniature. Consisting of 410,000 coloured oil barrels, the work would have stood as the largest sculpture in the world and, if we are to see the planning of the projects as artworks in themselves, the ambition is laudable even if it was never realised.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Boundless is showing at Saatchi Gallery until 22nd January 2024
Earlier this year, the vibrant sprawl of Beyond the Streets London took over the entirety of Sloane Square’s Saatchi Gallery with its brashly colourful celebration of street art history. Entering the gallery’s first floor today for Boundless, however, the space seems sparse in comparison; where once stood a collection of outfits, props and speakers now is empty, suggesting a more standard use of the gallery space. Until, that is, visitors round the first corner.
Images of l’Arc de Triomphe wrapped entirely in silvery blue fabric naturally made the rounds on social media for the two weeks in 2021 that the event took place, and for good reason; the work by artist couple Christo and Jeanne-Claude was a phenomenal undertaking 60 years in the making, and one which, tragically, neither artist survived to see actualised. For those who missed out on the sight of the Parisian landmark becoming a part of the couple’s artistic practice, Boundless is perhaps the next-best thing; displaying images of their works at a colossal, wall-engulfing size, a work which still lingers in the popular consciousness is an obvious opening to a retrospective of the artists’ career.
While the exhibition is a celebration of spectacle - as was, arguably, the entire career of Christo and Jeanne-Claude - a large portion of the gallery space is dedicated to preparatory sketches and other ephemera showcasing the meticulous planning that went into each piece of architecture-incorporating art. The keen interest of the curators in the method of wrapping these buildings is perhaps best exemplified in the caption to Wrapped Reichstag; while noting the social impact of the piece and its role as a symbol of a more open-minded, cosmopolitan government following the fall of the Berlin Wall, the year of the artwork is tellingly listed as ‘1972-1995’. Here, the artwork is not just the finished product, but also the twenty-three years of planning that went into its creation.
Later, The Valley Curtain Project, a 200,200 square foot fabric curtain spanning Grand Hogback Mountain Range in Colorado, is showcased as a highlight of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s career, despite the fact that the artists were forced to take it down after only 28 hours due to gale-force winds. This focus on the process over the finished result is not just a facet of the exhibition, but also of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s career as a whole. One of the more personal artworks on display is the piece Wrapped Payphone: credited only to Christo, the work is noted as a tribute to the couple’s various collaborators, frequently contacted by them on payphones as they scrambled around New York City. The piece serves as a literal reminder of the direct line from process to finished artwork, with one of the artists’ most valuable tools reworked with the visual style of their ‘finished’ artworks.
Also notable here is the presence of works by various collaborators and contemporaries on display throughout the exhibition, further demonstrating the importance of cooperation in Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s works. While an early caption notes that all of their projects were self-funded and self-actualised, this feels more like a statement of creative independence rather than the isolationism of ‘canonical’ artists in traditional art histories. César’s Compression, ND, for instance, highlights another sculptor who sought to represent common objects in an alienated form, while Jacques Villeglé’s torn posters of Le Ranelagh echo the everyday psychogeography of traversing a city and taking in the architecture.
Elsewhere, the torn canvases of Lucio Fontana’s Spatial Concept: Expectation imagine dimensions outside the flat surface, bridging the gap between canvas and sculpture. Such experiments with form and space - as well as Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s transformation of architectural form into colossal abstract sculpture - make Boundless a worthy participant in Saatchi Gallery’s Season of Sculpture, given the time and space it gives to experimentation within the medium.
This all leads back to the question of whether such works are as impressive in a gallery space as they are in person. However, given the inherent ephemerality of the artworks, such a retrospective would not be possible without archival documentation; The Valley Curtain Project, for instance, is impressive enough even considering its brief lifetime. A caption for the couple’s series of gates in New York’s Central Park brings attention to the fact that “the gates were not a static object: visitors could walk through them, they had no start or end point and there was no specified location from which to view them”. Such colossal works are worth appreciating from multiple temporal perspectives as well as geographical ones, and the couple’s final unfinished project The Mastaba is breathtaking even in miniature. Consisting of 410,000 coloured oil barrels, the work would have stood as the largest sculpture in the world and, if we are to see the planning of the projects as artworks in themselves, the ambition is laudable even if it was never realised.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Boundless is showing at Saatchi Gallery until 22nd January 2024
Earlier this year, the vibrant sprawl of Beyond the Streets London took over the entirety of Sloane Square’s Saatchi Gallery with its brashly colourful celebration of street art history. Entering the gallery’s first floor today for Boundless, however, the space seems sparse in comparison; where once stood a collection of outfits, props and speakers now is empty, suggesting a more standard use of the gallery space. Until, that is, visitors round the first corner.
Images of l’Arc de Triomphe wrapped entirely in silvery blue fabric naturally made the rounds on social media for the two weeks in 2021 that the event took place, and for good reason; the work by artist couple Christo and Jeanne-Claude was a phenomenal undertaking 60 years in the making, and one which, tragically, neither artist survived to see actualised. For those who missed out on the sight of the Parisian landmark becoming a part of the couple’s artistic practice, Boundless is perhaps the next-best thing; displaying images of their works at a colossal, wall-engulfing size, a work which still lingers in the popular consciousness is an obvious opening to a retrospective of the artists’ career.
While the exhibition is a celebration of spectacle - as was, arguably, the entire career of Christo and Jeanne-Claude - a large portion of the gallery space is dedicated to preparatory sketches and other ephemera showcasing the meticulous planning that went into each piece of architecture-incorporating art. The keen interest of the curators in the method of wrapping these buildings is perhaps best exemplified in the caption to Wrapped Reichstag; while noting the social impact of the piece and its role as a symbol of a more open-minded, cosmopolitan government following the fall of the Berlin Wall, the year of the artwork is tellingly listed as ‘1972-1995’. Here, the artwork is not just the finished product, but also the twenty-three years of planning that went into its creation.
Later, The Valley Curtain Project, a 200,200 square foot fabric curtain spanning Grand Hogback Mountain Range in Colorado, is showcased as a highlight of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s career, despite the fact that the artists were forced to take it down after only 28 hours due to gale-force winds. This focus on the process over the finished result is not just a facet of the exhibition, but also of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s career as a whole. One of the more personal artworks on display is the piece Wrapped Payphone: credited only to Christo, the work is noted as a tribute to the couple’s various collaborators, frequently contacted by them on payphones as they scrambled around New York City. The piece serves as a literal reminder of the direct line from process to finished artwork, with one of the artists’ most valuable tools reworked with the visual style of their ‘finished’ artworks.
Also notable here is the presence of works by various collaborators and contemporaries on display throughout the exhibition, further demonstrating the importance of cooperation in Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s works. While an early caption notes that all of their projects were self-funded and self-actualised, this feels more like a statement of creative independence rather than the isolationism of ‘canonical’ artists in traditional art histories. César’s Compression, ND, for instance, highlights another sculptor who sought to represent common objects in an alienated form, while Jacques Villeglé’s torn posters of Le Ranelagh echo the everyday psychogeography of traversing a city and taking in the architecture.
Elsewhere, the torn canvases of Lucio Fontana’s Spatial Concept: Expectation imagine dimensions outside the flat surface, bridging the gap between canvas and sculpture. Such experiments with form and space - as well as Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s transformation of architectural form into colossal abstract sculpture - make Boundless a worthy participant in Saatchi Gallery’s Season of Sculpture, given the time and space it gives to experimentation within the medium.
This all leads back to the question of whether such works are as impressive in a gallery space as they are in person. However, given the inherent ephemerality of the artworks, such a retrospective would not be possible without archival documentation; The Valley Curtain Project, for instance, is impressive enough even considering its brief lifetime. A caption for the couple’s series of gates in New York’s Central Park brings attention to the fact that “the gates were not a static object: visitors could walk through them, they had no start or end point and there was no specified location from which to view them”. Such colossal works are worth appreciating from multiple temporal perspectives as well as geographical ones, and the couple’s final unfinished project The Mastaba is breathtaking even in miniature. Consisting of 410,000 coloured oil barrels, the work would have stood as the largest sculpture in the world and, if we are to see the planning of the projects as artworks in themselves, the ambition is laudable even if it was never realised.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Boundless is showing at Saatchi Gallery until 22nd January 2024
Earlier this year, the vibrant sprawl of Beyond the Streets London took over the entirety of Sloane Square’s Saatchi Gallery with its brashly colourful celebration of street art history. Entering the gallery’s first floor today for Boundless, however, the space seems sparse in comparison; where once stood a collection of outfits, props and speakers now is empty, suggesting a more standard use of the gallery space. Until, that is, visitors round the first corner.
Images of l’Arc de Triomphe wrapped entirely in silvery blue fabric naturally made the rounds on social media for the two weeks in 2021 that the event took place, and for good reason; the work by artist couple Christo and Jeanne-Claude was a phenomenal undertaking 60 years in the making, and one which, tragically, neither artist survived to see actualised. For those who missed out on the sight of the Parisian landmark becoming a part of the couple’s artistic practice, Boundless is perhaps the next-best thing; displaying images of their works at a colossal, wall-engulfing size, a work which still lingers in the popular consciousness is an obvious opening to a retrospective of the artists’ career.
While the exhibition is a celebration of spectacle - as was, arguably, the entire career of Christo and Jeanne-Claude - a large portion of the gallery space is dedicated to preparatory sketches and other ephemera showcasing the meticulous planning that went into each piece of architecture-incorporating art. The keen interest of the curators in the method of wrapping these buildings is perhaps best exemplified in the caption to Wrapped Reichstag; while noting the social impact of the piece and its role as a symbol of a more open-minded, cosmopolitan government following the fall of the Berlin Wall, the year of the artwork is tellingly listed as ‘1972-1995’. Here, the artwork is not just the finished product, but also the twenty-three years of planning that went into its creation.
Later, The Valley Curtain Project, a 200,200 square foot fabric curtain spanning Grand Hogback Mountain Range in Colorado, is showcased as a highlight of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s career, despite the fact that the artists were forced to take it down after only 28 hours due to gale-force winds. This focus on the process over the finished result is not just a facet of the exhibition, but also of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s career as a whole. One of the more personal artworks on display is the piece Wrapped Payphone: credited only to Christo, the work is noted as a tribute to the couple’s various collaborators, frequently contacted by them on payphones as they scrambled around New York City. The piece serves as a literal reminder of the direct line from process to finished artwork, with one of the artists’ most valuable tools reworked with the visual style of their ‘finished’ artworks.
Also notable here is the presence of works by various collaborators and contemporaries on display throughout the exhibition, further demonstrating the importance of cooperation in Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s works. While an early caption notes that all of their projects were self-funded and self-actualised, this feels more like a statement of creative independence rather than the isolationism of ‘canonical’ artists in traditional art histories. César’s Compression, ND, for instance, highlights another sculptor who sought to represent common objects in an alienated form, while Jacques Villeglé’s torn posters of Le Ranelagh echo the everyday psychogeography of traversing a city and taking in the architecture.
Elsewhere, the torn canvases of Lucio Fontana’s Spatial Concept: Expectation imagine dimensions outside the flat surface, bridging the gap between canvas and sculpture. Such experiments with form and space - as well as Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s transformation of architectural form into colossal abstract sculpture - make Boundless a worthy participant in Saatchi Gallery’s Season of Sculpture, given the time and space it gives to experimentation within the medium.
This all leads back to the question of whether such works are as impressive in a gallery space as they are in person. However, given the inherent ephemerality of the artworks, such a retrospective would not be possible without archival documentation; The Valley Curtain Project, for instance, is impressive enough even considering its brief lifetime. A caption for the couple’s series of gates in New York’s Central Park brings attention to the fact that “the gates were not a static object: visitors could walk through them, they had no start or end point and there was no specified location from which to view them”. Such colossal works are worth appreciating from multiple temporal perspectives as well as geographical ones, and the couple’s final unfinished project The Mastaba is breathtaking even in miniature. Consisting of 410,000 coloured oil barrels, the work would have stood as the largest sculpture in the world and, if we are to see the planning of the projects as artworks in themselves, the ambition is laudable even if it was never realised.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Boundless is showing at Saatchi Gallery until 22nd January 2024
Earlier this year, the vibrant sprawl of Beyond the Streets London took over the entirety of Sloane Square’s Saatchi Gallery with its brashly colourful celebration of street art history. Entering the gallery’s first floor today for Boundless, however, the space seems sparse in comparison; where once stood a collection of outfits, props and speakers now is empty, suggesting a more standard use of the gallery space. Until, that is, visitors round the first corner.
Images of l’Arc de Triomphe wrapped entirely in silvery blue fabric naturally made the rounds on social media for the two weeks in 2021 that the event took place, and for good reason; the work by artist couple Christo and Jeanne-Claude was a phenomenal undertaking 60 years in the making, and one which, tragically, neither artist survived to see actualised. For those who missed out on the sight of the Parisian landmark becoming a part of the couple’s artistic practice, Boundless is perhaps the next-best thing; displaying images of their works at a colossal, wall-engulfing size, a work which still lingers in the popular consciousness is an obvious opening to a retrospective of the artists’ career.
While the exhibition is a celebration of spectacle - as was, arguably, the entire career of Christo and Jeanne-Claude - a large portion of the gallery space is dedicated to preparatory sketches and other ephemera showcasing the meticulous planning that went into each piece of architecture-incorporating art. The keen interest of the curators in the method of wrapping these buildings is perhaps best exemplified in the caption to Wrapped Reichstag; while noting the social impact of the piece and its role as a symbol of a more open-minded, cosmopolitan government following the fall of the Berlin Wall, the year of the artwork is tellingly listed as ‘1972-1995’. Here, the artwork is not just the finished product, but also the twenty-three years of planning that went into its creation.
Later, The Valley Curtain Project, a 200,200 square foot fabric curtain spanning Grand Hogback Mountain Range in Colorado, is showcased as a highlight of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s career, despite the fact that the artists were forced to take it down after only 28 hours due to gale-force winds. This focus on the process over the finished result is not just a facet of the exhibition, but also of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s career as a whole. One of the more personal artworks on display is the piece Wrapped Payphone: credited only to Christo, the work is noted as a tribute to the couple’s various collaborators, frequently contacted by them on payphones as they scrambled around New York City. The piece serves as a literal reminder of the direct line from process to finished artwork, with one of the artists’ most valuable tools reworked with the visual style of their ‘finished’ artworks.
Also notable here is the presence of works by various collaborators and contemporaries on display throughout the exhibition, further demonstrating the importance of cooperation in Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s works. While an early caption notes that all of their projects were self-funded and self-actualised, this feels more like a statement of creative independence rather than the isolationism of ‘canonical’ artists in traditional art histories. César’s Compression, ND, for instance, highlights another sculptor who sought to represent common objects in an alienated form, while Jacques Villeglé’s torn posters of Le Ranelagh echo the everyday psychogeography of traversing a city and taking in the architecture.
Elsewhere, the torn canvases of Lucio Fontana’s Spatial Concept: Expectation imagine dimensions outside the flat surface, bridging the gap between canvas and sculpture. Such experiments with form and space - as well as Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s transformation of architectural form into colossal abstract sculpture - make Boundless a worthy participant in Saatchi Gallery’s Season of Sculpture, given the time and space it gives to experimentation within the medium.
This all leads back to the question of whether such works are as impressive in a gallery space as they are in person. However, given the inherent ephemerality of the artworks, such a retrospective would not be possible without archival documentation; The Valley Curtain Project, for instance, is impressive enough even considering its brief lifetime. A caption for the couple’s series of gates in New York’s Central Park brings attention to the fact that “the gates were not a static object: visitors could walk through them, they had no start or end point and there was no specified location from which to view them”. Such colossal works are worth appreciating from multiple temporal perspectives as well as geographical ones, and the couple’s final unfinished project The Mastaba is breathtaking even in miniature. Consisting of 410,000 coloured oil barrels, the work would have stood as the largest sculpture in the world and, if we are to see the planning of the projects as artworks in themselves, the ambition is laudable even if it was never realised.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Boundless is showing at Saatchi Gallery until 22nd January 2024
Earlier this year, the vibrant sprawl of Beyond the Streets London took over the entirety of Sloane Square’s Saatchi Gallery with its brashly colourful celebration of street art history. Entering the gallery’s first floor today for Boundless, however, the space seems sparse in comparison; where once stood a collection of outfits, props and speakers now is empty, suggesting a more standard use of the gallery space. Until, that is, visitors round the first corner.
Images of l’Arc de Triomphe wrapped entirely in silvery blue fabric naturally made the rounds on social media for the two weeks in 2021 that the event took place, and for good reason; the work by artist couple Christo and Jeanne-Claude was a phenomenal undertaking 60 years in the making, and one which, tragically, neither artist survived to see actualised. For those who missed out on the sight of the Parisian landmark becoming a part of the couple’s artistic practice, Boundless is perhaps the next-best thing; displaying images of their works at a colossal, wall-engulfing size, a work which still lingers in the popular consciousness is an obvious opening to a retrospective of the artists’ career.
While the exhibition is a celebration of spectacle - as was, arguably, the entire career of Christo and Jeanne-Claude - a large portion of the gallery space is dedicated to preparatory sketches and other ephemera showcasing the meticulous planning that went into each piece of architecture-incorporating art. The keen interest of the curators in the method of wrapping these buildings is perhaps best exemplified in the caption to Wrapped Reichstag; while noting the social impact of the piece and its role as a symbol of a more open-minded, cosmopolitan government following the fall of the Berlin Wall, the year of the artwork is tellingly listed as ‘1972-1995’. Here, the artwork is not just the finished product, but also the twenty-three years of planning that went into its creation.
Later, The Valley Curtain Project, a 200,200 square foot fabric curtain spanning Grand Hogback Mountain Range in Colorado, is showcased as a highlight of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s career, despite the fact that the artists were forced to take it down after only 28 hours due to gale-force winds. This focus on the process over the finished result is not just a facet of the exhibition, but also of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s career as a whole. One of the more personal artworks on display is the piece Wrapped Payphone: credited only to Christo, the work is noted as a tribute to the couple’s various collaborators, frequently contacted by them on payphones as they scrambled around New York City. The piece serves as a literal reminder of the direct line from process to finished artwork, with one of the artists’ most valuable tools reworked with the visual style of their ‘finished’ artworks.
Also notable here is the presence of works by various collaborators and contemporaries on display throughout the exhibition, further demonstrating the importance of cooperation in Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s works. While an early caption notes that all of their projects were self-funded and self-actualised, this feels more like a statement of creative independence rather than the isolationism of ‘canonical’ artists in traditional art histories. César’s Compression, ND, for instance, highlights another sculptor who sought to represent common objects in an alienated form, while Jacques Villeglé’s torn posters of Le Ranelagh echo the everyday psychogeography of traversing a city and taking in the architecture.
Elsewhere, the torn canvases of Lucio Fontana’s Spatial Concept: Expectation imagine dimensions outside the flat surface, bridging the gap between canvas and sculpture. Such experiments with form and space - as well as Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s transformation of architectural form into colossal abstract sculpture - make Boundless a worthy participant in Saatchi Gallery’s Season of Sculpture, given the time and space it gives to experimentation within the medium.
This all leads back to the question of whether such works are as impressive in a gallery space as they are in person. However, given the inherent ephemerality of the artworks, such a retrospective would not be possible without archival documentation; The Valley Curtain Project, for instance, is impressive enough even considering its brief lifetime. A caption for the couple’s series of gates in New York’s Central Park brings attention to the fact that “the gates were not a static object: visitors could walk through them, they had no start or end point and there was no specified location from which to view them”. Such colossal works are worth appreciating from multiple temporal perspectives as well as geographical ones, and the couple’s final unfinished project The Mastaba is breathtaking even in miniature. Consisting of 410,000 coloured oil barrels, the work would have stood as the largest sculpture in the world and, if we are to see the planning of the projects as artworks in themselves, the ambition is laudable even if it was never realised.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Boundless is showing at Saatchi Gallery until 22nd January 2024
Earlier this year, the vibrant sprawl of Beyond the Streets London took over the entirety of Sloane Square’s Saatchi Gallery with its brashly colourful celebration of street art history. Entering the gallery’s first floor today for Boundless, however, the space seems sparse in comparison; where once stood a collection of outfits, props and speakers now is empty, suggesting a more standard use of the gallery space. Until, that is, visitors round the first corner.
Images of l’Arc de Triomphe wrapped entirely in silvery blue fabric naturally made the rounds on social media for the two weeks in 2021 that the event took place, and for good reason; the work by artist couple Christo and Jeanne-Claude was a phenomenal undertaking 60 years in the making, and one which, tragically, neither artist survived to see actualised. For those who missed out on the sight of the Parisian landmark becoming a part of the couple’s artistic practice, Boundless is perhaps the next-best thing; displaying images of their works at a colossal, wall-engulfing size, a work which still lingers in the popular consciousness is an obvious opening to a retrospective of the artists’ career.
While the exhibition is a celebration of spectacle - as was, arguably, the entire career of Christo and Jeanne-Claude - a large portion of the gallery space is dedicated to preparatory sketches and other ephemera showcasing the meticulous planning that went into each piece of architecture-incorporating art. The keen interest of the curators in the method of wrapping these buildings is perhaps best exemplified in the caption to Wrapped Reichstag; while noting the social impact of the piece and its role as a symbol of a more open-minded, cosmopolitan government following the fall of the Berlin Wall, the year of the artwork is tellingly listed as ‘1972-1995’. Here, the artwork is not just the finished product, but also the twenty-three years of planning that went into its creation.
Later, The Valley Curtain Project, a 200,200 square foot fabric curtain spanning Grand Hogback Mountain Range in Colorado, is showcased as a highlight of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s career, despite the fact that the artists were forced to take it down after only 28 hours due to gale-force winds. This focus on the process over the finished result is not just a facet of the exhibition, but also of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s career as a whole. One of the more personal artworks on display is the piece Wrapped Payphone: credited only to Christo, the work is noted as a tribute to the couple’s various collaborators, frequently contacted by them on payphones as they scrambled around New York City. The piece serves as a literal reminder of the direct line from process to finished artwork, with one of the artists’ most valuable tools reworked with the visual style of their ‘finished’ artworks.
Also notable here is the presence of works by various collaborators and contemporaries on display throughout the exhibition, further demonstrating the importance of cooperation in Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s works. While an early caption notes that all of their projects were self-funded and self-actualised, this feels more like a statement of creative independence rather than the isolationism of ‘canonical’ artists in traditional art histories. César’s Compression, ND, for instance, highlights another sculptor who sought to represent common objects in an alienated form, while Jacques Villeglé’s torn posters of Le Ranelagh echo the everyday psychogeography of traversing a city and taking in the architecture.
Elsewhere, the torn canvases of Lucio Fontana’s Spatial Concept: Expectation imagine dimensions outside the flat surface, bridging the gap between canvas and sculpture. Such experiments with form and space - as well as Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s transformation of architectural form into colossal abstract sculpture - make Boundless a worthy participant in Saatchi Gallery’s Season of Sculpture, given the time and space it gives to experimentation within the medium.
This all leads back to the question of whether such works are as impressive in a gallery space as they are in person. However, given the inherent ephemerality of the artworks, such a retrospective would not be possible without archival documentation; The Valley Curtain Project, for instance, is impressive enough even considering its brief lifetime. A caption for the couple’s series of gates in New York’s Central Park brings attention to the fact that “the gates were not a static object: visitors could walk through them, they had no start or end point and there was no specified location from which to view them”. Such colossal works are worth appreciating from multiple temporal perspectives as well as geographical ones, and the couple’s final unfinished project The Mastaba is breathtaking even in miniature. Consisting of 410,000 coloured oil barrels, the work would have stood as the largest sculpture in the world and, if we are to see the planning of the projects as artworks in themselves, the ambition is laudable even if it was never realised.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Boundless is showing at Saatchi Gallery until 22nd January 2024
Earlier this year, the vibrant sprawl of Beyond the Streets London took over the entirety of Sloane Square’s Saatchi Gallery with its brashly colourful celebration of street art history. Entering the gallery’s first floor today for Boundless, however, the space seems sparse in comparison; where once stood a collection of outfits, props and speakers now is empty, suggesting a more standard use of the gallery space. Until, that is, visitors round the first corner.
Images of l’Arc de Triomphe wrapped entirely in silvery blue fabric naturally made the rounds on social media for the two weeks in 2021 that the event took place, and for good reason; the work by artist couple Christo and Jeanne-Claude was a phenomenal undertaking 60 years in the making, and one which, tragically, neither artist survived to see actualised. For those who missed out on the sight of the Parisian landmark becoming a part of the couple’s artistic practice, Boundless is perhaps the next-best thing; displaying images of their works at a colossal, wall-engulfing size, a work which still lingers in the popular consciousness is an obvious opening to a retrospective of the artists’ career.
While the exhibition is a celebration of spectacle - as was, arguably, the entire career of Christo and Jeanne-Claude - a large portion of the gallery space is dedicated to preparatory sketches and other ephemera showcasing the meticulous planning that went into each piece of architecture-incorporating art. The keen interest of the curators in the method of wrapping these buildings is perhaps best exemplified in the caption to Wrapped Reichstag; while noting the social impact of the piece and its role as a symbol of a more open-minded, cosmopolitan government following the fall of the Berlin Wall, the year of the artwork is tellingly listed as ‘1972-1995’. Here, the artwork is not just the finished product, but also the twenty-three years of planning that went into its creation.
Later, The Valley Curtain Project, a 200,200 square foot fabric curtain spanning Grand Hogback Mountain Range in Colorado, is showcased as a highlight of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s career, despite the fact that the artists were forced to take it down after only 28 hours due to gale-force winds. This focus on the process over the finished result is not just a facet of the exhibition, but also of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s career as a whole. One of the more personal artworks on display is the piece Wrapped Payphone: credited only to Christo, the work is noted as a tribute to the couple’s various collaborators, frequently contacted by them on payphones as they scrambled around New York City. The piece serves as a literal reminder of the direct line from process to finished artwork, with one of the artists’ most valuable tools reworked with the visual style of their ‘finished’ artworks.
Also notable here is the presence of works by various collaborators and contemporaries on display throughout the exhibition, further demonstrating the importance of cooperation in Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s works. While an early caption notes that all of their projects were self-funded and self-actualised, this feels more like a statement of creative independence rather than the isolationism of ‘canonical’ artists in traditional art histories. César’s Compression, ND, for instance, highlights another sculptor who sought to represent common objects in an alienated form, while Jacques Villeglé’s torn posters of Le Ranelagh echo the everyday psychogeography of traversing a city and taking in the architecture.
Elsewhere, the torn canvases of Lucio Fontana’s Spatial Concept: Expectation imagine dimensions outside the flat surface, bridging the gap between canvas and sculpture. Such experiments with form and space - as well as Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s transformation of architectural form into colossal abstract sculpture - make Boundless a worthy participant in Saatchi Gallery’s Season of Sculpture, given the time and space it gives to experimentation within the medium.
This all leads back to the question of whether such works are as impressive in a gallery space as they are in person. However, given the inherent ephemerality of the artworks, such a retrospective would not be possible without archival documentation; The Valley Curtain Project, for instance, is impressive enough even considering its brief lifetime. A caption for the couple’s series of gates in New York’s Central Park brings attention to the fact that “the gates were not a static object: visitors could walk through them, they had no start or end point and there was no specified location from which to view them”. Such colossal works are worth appreciating from multiple temporal perspectives as well as geographical ones, and the couple’s final unfinished project The Mastaba is breathtaking even in miniature. Consisting of 410,000 coloured oil barrels, the work would have stood as the largest sculpture in the world and, if we are to see the planning of the projects as artworks in themselves, the ambition is laudable even if it was never realised.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Boundless is showing at Saatchi Gallery until 22nd January 2024
Earlier this year, the vibrant sprawl of Beyond the Streets London took over the entirety of Sloane Square’s Saatchi Gallery with its brashly colourful celebration of street art history. Entering the gallery’s first floor today for Boundless, however, the space seems sparse in comparison; where once stood a collection of outfits, props and speakers now is empty, suggesting a more standard use of the gallery space. Until, that is, visitors round the first corner.
Images of l’Arc de Triomphe wrapped entirely in silvery blue fabric naturally made the rounds on social media for the two weeks in 2021 that the event took place, and for good reason; the work by artist couple Christo and Jeanne-Claude was a phenomenal undertaking 60 years in the making, and one which, tragically, neither artist survived to see actualised. For those who missed out on the sight of the Parisian landmark becoming a part of the couple’s artistic practice, Boundless is perhaps the next-best thing; displaying images of their works at a colossal, wall-engulfing size, a work which still lingers in the popular consciousness is an obvious opening to a retrospective of the artists’ career.
While the exhibition is a celebration of spectacle - as was, arguably, the entire career of Christo and Jeanne-Claude - a large portion of the gallery space is dedicated to preparatory sketches and other ephemera showcasing the meticulous planning that went into each piece of architecture-incorporating art. The keen interest of the curators in the method of wrapping these buildings is perhaps best exemplified in the caption to Wrapped Reichstag; while noting the social impact of the piece and its role as a symbol of a more open-minded, cosmopolitan government following the fall of the Berlin Wall, the year of the artwork is tellingly listed as ‘1972-1995’. Here, the artwork is not just the finished product, but also the twenty-three years of planning that went into its creation.
Later, The Valley Curtain Project, a 200,200 square foot fabric curtain spanning Grand Hogback Mountain Range in Colorado, is showcased as a highlight of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s career, despite the fact that the artists were forced to take it down after only 28 hours due to gale-force winds. This focus on the process over the finished result is not just a facet of the exhibition, but also of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s career as a whole. One of the more personal artworks on display is the piece Wrapped Payphone: credited only to Christo, the work is noted as a tribute to the couple’s various collaborators, frequently contacted by them on payphones as they scrambled around New York City. The piece serves as a literal reminder of the direct line from process to finished artwork, with one of the artists’ most valuable tools reworked with the visual style of their ‘finished’ artworks.
Also notable here is the presence of works by various collaborators and contemporaries on display throughout the exhibition, further demonstrating the importance of cooperation in Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s works. While an early caption notes that all of their projects were self-funded and self-actualised, this feels more like a statement of creative independence rather than the isolationism of ‘canonical’ artists in traditional art histories. César’s Compression, ND, for instance, highlights another sculptor who sought to represent common objects in an alienated form, while Jacques Villeglé’s torn posters of Le Ranelagh echo the everyday psychogeography of traversing a city and taking in the architecture.
Elsewhere, the torn canvases of Lucio Fontana’s Spatial Concept: Expectation imagine dimensions outside the flat surface, bridging the gap between canvas and sculpture. Such experiments with form and space - as well as Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s transformation of architectural form into colossal abstract sculpture - make Boundless a worthy participant in Saatchi Gallery’s Season of Sculpture, given the time and space it gives to experimentation within the medium.
This all leads back to the question of whether such works are as impressive in a gallery space as they are in person. However, given the inherent ephemerality of the artworks, such a retrospective would not be possible without archival documentation; The Valley Curtain Project, for instance, is impressive enough even considering its brief lifetime. A caption for the couple’s series of gates in New York’s Central Park brings attention to the fact that “the gates were not a static object: visitors could walk through them, they had no start or end point and there was no specified location from which to view them”. Such colossal works are worth appreciating from multiple temporal perspectives as well as geographical ones, and the couple’s final unfinished project The Mastaba is breathtaking even in miniature. Consisting of 410,000 coloured oil barrels, the work would have stood as the largest sculpture in the world and, if we are to see the planning of the projects as artworks in themselves, the ambition is laudable even if it was never realised.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Boundless is showing at Saatchi Gallery until 22nd January 2024
Earlier this year, the vibrant sprawl of Beyond the Streets London took over the entirety of Sloane Square’s Saatchi Gallery with its brashly colourful celebration of street art history. Entering the gallery’s first floor today for Boundless, however, the space seems sparse in comparison; where once stood a collection of outfits, props and speakers now is empty, suggesting a more standard use of the gallery space. Until, that is, visitors round the first corner.
Images of l’Arc de Triomphe wrapped entirely in silvery blue fabric naturally made the rounds on social media for the two weeks in 2021 that the event took place, and for good reason; the work by artist couple Christo and Jeanne-Claude was a phenomenal undertaking 60 years in the making, and one which, tragically, neither artist survived to see actualised. For those who missed out on the sight of the Parisian landmark becoming a part of the couple’s artistic practice, Boundless is perhaps the next-best thing; displaying images of their works at a colossal, wall-engulfing size, a work which still lingers in the popular consciousness is an obvious opening to a retrospective of the artists’ career.
While the exhibition is a celebration of spectacle - as was, arguably, the entire career of Christo and Jeanne-Claude - a large portion of the gallery space is dedicated to preparatory sketches and other ephemera showcasing the meticulous planning that went into each piece of architecture-incorporating art. The keen interest of the curators in the method of wrapping these buildings is perhaps best exemplified in the caption to Wrapped Reichstag; while noting the social impact of the piece and its role as a symbol of a more open-minded, cosmopolitan government following the fall of the Berlin Wall, the year of the artwork is tellingly listed as ‘1972-1995’. Here, the artwork is not just the finished product, but also the twenty-three years of planning that went into its creation.
Later, The Valley Curtain Project, a 200,200 square foot fabric curtain spanning Grand Hogback Mountain Range in Colorado, is showcased as a highlight of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s career, despite the fact that the artists were forced to take it down after only 28 hours due to gale-force winds. This focus on the process over the finished result is not just a facet of the exhibition, but also of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s career as a whole. One of the more personal artworks on display is the piece Wrapped Payphone: credited only to Christo, the work is noted as a tribute to the couple’s various collaborators, frequently contacted by them on payphones as they scrambled around New York City. The piece serves as a literal reminder of the direct line from process to finished artwork, with one of the artists’ most valuable tools reworked with the visual style of their ‘finished’ artworks.
Also notable here is the presence of works by various collaborators and contemporaries on display throughout the exhibition, further demonstrating the importance of cooperation in Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s works. While an early caption notes that all of their projects were self-funded and self-actualised, this feels more like a statement of creative independence rather than the isolationism of ‘canonical’ artists in traditional art histories. César’s Compression, ND, for instance, highlights another sculptor who sought to represent common objects in an alienated form, while Jacques Villeglé’s torn posters of Le Ranelagh echo the everyday psychogeography of traversing a city and taking in the architecture.
Elsewhere, the torn canvases of Lucio Fontana’s Spatial Concept: Expectation imagine dimensions outside the flat surface, bridging the gap between canvas and sculpture. Such experiments with form and space - as well as Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s transformation of architectural form into colossal abstract sculpture - make Boundless a worthy participant in Saatchi Gallery’s Season of Sculpture, given the time and space it gives to experimentation within the medium.
This all leads back to the question of whether such works are as impressive in a gallery space as they are in person. However, given the inherent ephemerality of the artworks, such a retrospective would not be possible without archival documentation; The Valley Curtain Project, for instance, is impressive enough even considering its brief lifetime. A caption for the couple’s series of gates in New York’s Central Park brings attention to the fact that “the gates were not a static object: visitors could walk through them, they had no start or end point and there was no specified location from which to view them”. Such colossal works are worth appreciating from multiple temporal perspectives as well as geographical ones, and the couple’s final unfinished project The Mastaba is breathtaking even in miniature. Consisting of 410,000 coloured oil barrels, the work would have stood as the largest sculpture in the world and, if we are to see the planning of the projects as artworks in themselves, the ambition is laudable even if it was never realised.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Boundless is showing at Saatchi Gallery until 22nd January 2024
Earlier this year, the vibrant sprawl of Beyond the Streets London took over the entirety of Sloane Square’s Saatchi Gallery with its brashly colourful celebration of street art history. Entering the gallery’s first floor today for Boundless, however, the space seems sparse in comparison; where once stood a collection of outfits, props and speakers now is empty, suggesting a more standard use of the gallery space. Until, that is, visitors round the first corner.
Images of l’Arc de Triomphe wrapped entirely in silvery blue fabric naturally made the rounds on social media for the two weeks in 2021 that the event took place, and for good reason; the work by artist couple Christo and Jeanne-Claude was a phenomenal undertaking 60 years in the making, and one which, tragically, neither artist survived to see actualised. For those who missed out on the sight of the Parisian landmark becoming a part of the couple’s artistic practice, Boundless is perhaps the next-best thing; displaying images of their works at a colossal, wall-engulfing size, a work which still lingers in the popular consciousness is an obvious opening to a retrospective of the artists’ career.
While the exhibition is a celebration of spectacle - as was, arguably, the entire career of Christo and Jeanne-Claude - a large portion of the gallery space is dedicated to preparatory sketches and other ephemera showcasing the meticulous planning that went into each piece of architecture-incorporating art. The keen interest of the curators in the method of wrapping these buildings is perhaps best exemplified in the caption to Wrapped Reichstag; while noting the social impact of the piece and its role as a symbol of a more open-minded, cosmopolitan government following the fall of the Berlin Wall, the year of the artwork is tellingly listed as ‘1972-1995’. Here, the artwork is not just the finished product, but also the twenty-three years of planning that went into its creation.
Later, The Valley Curtain Project, a 200,200 square foot fabric curtain spanning Grand Hogback Mountain Range in Colorado, is showcased as a highlight of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s career, despite the fact that the artists were forced to take it down after only 28 hours due to gale-force winds. This focus on the process over the finished result is not just a facet of the exhibition, but also of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s career as a whole. One of the more personal artworks on display is the piece Wrapped Payphone: credited only to Christo, the work is noted as a tribute to the couple’s various collaborators, frequently contacted by them on payphones as they scrambled around New York City. The piece serves as a literal reminder of the direct line from process to finished artwork, with one of the artists’ most valuable tools reworked with the visual style of their ‘finished’ artworks.
Also notable here is the presence of works by various collaborators and contemporaries on display throughout the exhibition, further demonstrating the importance of cooperation in Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s works. While an early caption notes that all of their projects were self-funded and self-actualised, this feels more like a statement of creative independence rather than the isolationism of ‘canonical’ artists in traditional art histories. César’s Compression, ND, for instance, highlights another sculptor who sought to represent common objects in an alienated form, while Jacques Villeglé’s torn posters of Le Ranelagh echo the everyday psychogeography of traversing a city and taking in the architecture.
Elsewhere, the torn canvases of Lucio Fontana’s Spatial Concept: Expectation imagine dimensions outside the flat surface, bridging the gap between canvas and sculpture. Such experiments with form and space - as well as Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s transformation of architectural form into colossal abstract sculpture - make Boundless a worthy participant in Saatchi Gallery’s Season of Sculpture, given the time and space it gives to experimentation within the medium.
This all leads back to the question of whether such works are as impressive in a gallery space as they are in person. However, given the inherent ephemerality of the artworks, such a retrospective would not be possible without archival documentation; The Valley Curtain Project, for instance, is impressive enough even considering its brief lifetime. A caption for the couple’s series of gates in New York’s Central Park brings attention to the fact that “the gates were not a static object: visitors could walk through them, they had no start or end point and there was no specified location from which to view them”. Such colossal works are worth appreciating from multiple temporal perspectives as well as geographical ones, and the couple’s final unfinished project The Mastaba is breathtaking even in miniature. Consisting of 410,000 coloured oil barrels, the work would have stood as the largest sculpture in the world and, if we are to see the planning of the projects as artworks in themselves, the ambition is laudable even if it was never realised.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Boundless is showing at Saatchi Gallery until 22nd January 2024
