Christo
Christo
Volume temporaire - Empaquetage pour Minneapolis School of Art
1966
Pencil and colored pencil, charcoal, collaged, on cardboard on hardboard 71 x 56 cm. Framed under plexiglass. Signed, dated, titled and inscribed 'Volume temporaire - Empaquetage pour Minneapolis School of Art - 24 - 29 octobre 1966 Christo 42390 CUBIC FEET EMPAQUETAGE'. - With studio and light signs of age.
The present work is in the Archives of the Estate of Christo V. Javacheff, New York, registered.
Provenance
Annely Juda, London (with label on the reverse); Willy D'Huysser Gallery, Brussels (with label on the reverse); Private collection, Belgium.
The offered pencil and charcoal drawing "Empaquetage pour Minneapolis School of Art" is one of the early and rarely offered project-related works by Christo. The Bulgarian-born artist and his wife Jeanne-Claude realized their first significant packaging project of monumental proportions in October 1966 at the Minneapolis School of Art. Together with the students, they packed 2,800 colored balloons into four Army high-altitude research balloons. All balloons were inflated, sealed and wrapped in approximately 800m² of semi-transparent polyethylene film. A 900m long 'manila' rope gave structure to the huge package. The resulting oblong balloon was almost 800m long when inflated. As the climax of the happening, Christo and Jeanne-Claude had the idea to lift the balloon with the help of a helicopter and let it fly. However, the strong wind that arose put an early end to this. Nevertheless, the sunlight conjured up a fantastically beautiful effect on the colored and transparent materials.
In realizing their projects, the artist couple forgoes subsidies and finances them through the sale of signed preliminary drawings and photographs, including the drawing offered for Minneapolis. For this, Christo chooses a view from the front and adds a scale figure to clarify the size. He achieves the three-dimensional effect of the balloon by confidently handling the charcoal pencil with shadowed and lightened areas. The caption at the bottom of the sheet, apart from the title "42390 Cubic Feet Empaquetage", also gives an idea of the materials, dimensions and number of students involved.
