Lotto 3440 - A211 Postwar e contemporary art - giovedì, 28. novembre 2024, 16h00
CHRISTO (VLADIMIROV JAVACHEFF)
(Gabrowo 1935–2020 New York)
Valley Curtain (Project for Colorado/Rifle). 1971.
Collage. Pencil, crayon, wax crayon, cover white, fabric, photograph, map, staples and tape on cardboard.
Signed and dated lower left: Christo 1971.
70.7 × 55.7 cm.
Provenance:
"Do you know that I don’t have any artworks that exist? They all go away when they’re finished. Only the preparatory drawings and collages are left, giving my works an almost legendary character." Christo
This work was carried out in preparation for Christo's ‘Valley Curtain’ project, which was realised on 10 August 1972 after more than two years of planning. Christo and Jeanne-Claude had an enormous orange curtain suspended between two mountain slopes in the middle of Colorado, a project that marked the beginning of numerous other projects by the duo in America. An initial attempt at erecting the technically demanding installation failed in October 1971, when a strong wind destroyed the fabric. Despite this setback, the artist couple made a further attempt: on 10 August 1972, numerous engineers, workers and volunteers installed the 18,600 m2 nylon fabric on a 400-metre steel cable anchored in the mountains. The spectacular landscape project was extensively documented and photographed but had to be dismantled after only 28 hours due to another storm.
The tenacity with which Christo and Jeanne-Claude pursued this project – from the long planning phase, to the intensive negotiations with authorities and environmentalists, and financing through the sale of Christo's sketches, drawings, collages, models and lithographs – illustrates a central principle of their work: striving to overcome the seemingly impossible and to bring utopias into being.
The work presented here represents an advanced stage in the planning. First, Christo illustrates the curtain with an orange strip of fabric stapled to a piece of cardboard. Then, he renders it in bright orange paint on a black-and-white photograph showing the Rifle Gap, an impressive valley in Colorado. The steep rock walls, also attached to the composition with staples, are depicted with bold hatching in pencil, crayon, opaque white and wax crayon. The detailed technical specifications given for the arrangement are redolent of architectural drawings and underscore the visionary character of this work and its relationship to the concrete execution of the project. As a result, the three stages of planning, implementation and documentation are manifested in the drawing and make this an important component of a wonderful project by the artist duo.
Foto 2: © Shunk-Kender.
This work was carried out in preparation for Christo's ‘Valley Curtain’ project, which was realised on 10 August 1972 after more than two years of planning. Christo and Jeanne-Claude had an enormous orange curtain suspended between two mountain slopes in the middle of Colorado, a project that marked the beginning of numerous other projects by the duo in America. An initial attempt at erecting the technically demanding installation failed in October 1971, when a strong wind destroyed the fabric. Despite this setback, the artist couple made a further attempt: on 10 August 1972, numerous engineers, workers and volunteers installed the 18,600 m2 nylon fabric on a 400-metre steel cable anchored in the mountains. The spectacular landscape project was extensively documented and photographed but had to be dismantled after only 28 hours due to another storm.
The tenacity with which Christo and Jeanne-Claude pursued this project – from the long planning phase, to the intensive negotiations with authorities and environmentalists, and financing through the sale of Christo's sketches, drawings, collages, models and lithographs – illustrates a central principle of their work: striving to overcome the seemingly impossible and to bring utopias into being.
The work presented here represents an advanced stage in the planning. First, Christo illustrates the curtain with an orange strip of fabric stapled to a piece of cardboard. Then, he renders it in bright orange paint on a black-and-white photograph showing the Rifle Gap, an impressive valley in Colorado. The steep rock walls, also attached to the composition with staples, are depicted with bold hatching in pencil, crayon, opaque white and wax crayon. The detailed technical specifications given for the arrangement are redolent of architectural drawings and underscore the visionary character of this work and its relationship to the concrete execution of the project. As a result, the three stages of planning, implementation and documentation are manifested in the drawing and make this an important component of a wonderful project by the artist duo.
Foto 2: © Shunk-Kender.
CHF 20 000 / 30 000 | (€ 20 620 / 30 930)
Venduto per CHF 58 750 (incl. premio)