In 1920, Man Ray wrapped a sewing machine in material and tied it with string. In a similar Surrealist spirit, Chirsto developed his idea to make art of objects, enigmatically packaged and wrapped. In the 1960s, he expanded his artistic ambitions to include the wrapping of public buildings. His out-sized, dramatic projects were recognised as a significant contribution to a period when 'Happenings' had taken art beyond the modernist arena.
They are most notably described as environmental artists because they work in both the rural and the urban environment however, never in deserted sites. They always create their works in sites already prepared and used by people, managed by human beings for human beings. Christo and Jeanne- Claude attempt to “create works of art of joy and beauty, which we will build because we believe it will be beautiful. The only way to see it is to build it. Like every artist, every true artist, we create them for us”.
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The Umbrellas, Japan--USA, 1984-91, photograph 1991, color photograph by Wolfgang Volz, mounted on aluminum panel, 149.86 x 198.1 (59 x 78).
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The actual installation of the projects is described as the “hardware” part of their work, the preparation being the “software.” The “hardware” part of the work is very ephemeral. This greatly affects the impact because there becomes an urgency to view it.
To understand their work one must realise what is inherent to each project. There is an important difference between their works of art and the usual architecture and urban planning, they are our own sponsors and they pay for their works of art with their own money, never accepting any grants nor sponsors. A conception on a paper is not Christo and Jeanne-Claude's idea of art. They want to build their projects – want to SEE their project realised because they believe it will be a work of art of joy and beauty.
To understand their work one must realise what is inherent to each project. There is an important difference between their works of art and the usual architecture and urban planning, they are our own sponsors and they pay for their works of art with their own money, never accepting any grants nor sponsors. A conception on a paper is not Christo and Jeanne-Claude's idea of art. They want to build their projects – want to SEE their project realised because they believe it will be a work of art of joy and beauty.
So-Called Environmentalists, in the past, have claimed, before each project, that Christo and Jeanne-Claude will hurt the environment. They realised, after the completion that:
1. Christo and Jeanne-Claude are the cleanest artists in the world, all is removed, and their large scale works of art are temporary. 2. The sites are restored to their original condition and most materials are recycled. All of their works have a scale to be enjoyed by human beings who are on the ground, and the common denominator of the works is the use of fabric, cloth. |
The work of Christo and Jeanne-Claude challenges the traditional role of the artist and what an artwork is, as well as the role of the art gallery. It is postmodern in its use of non-traditional media and audience participation.
FOCUS ARTWORK: Wrapped ReichstaG
Christo first conceived the idea to wrap the Reichstag in 1971 before the Berlin Wall came down- a major artistic and political achievement. Like all of their projects,the work of art was entirely financed by the artists, through the sale of preparatory studies, drawings, collages, scale models as well as early works and original lithographs.
After a struggle spanning through the Seventies, Eighties and Nineties, the wrapping of the Reichstag was completed on June 24th, 1995 by a work force of 90 professional climbers and 120 installation workers. The Reichstag remained wrapped for 14 days and all materials were recycled.Ten companies in Germany started in September 1994 to manufacture all the various materials according to the specifications of the engineers. During the months of April, May and June 1995, ironworkers installed the steel structures on the towers, the roof, the statues and the stone vases to allow the folds of fabric to cascade from the roof down to the ground.
100,000 square meters (1,076,000 square feet) of thick woven polypropylene fabric with an aluminum surface and 15,600 meters (51,181 feet) of blue polypropylene rope, diameter 3.2 cm. (1.25?), were used for the wrapping of the Reichstag. The façades, the towers and the roof were covered by 70 tailor-made fabric panels, twice as much fabric as the surface of the building.
After a struggle spanning through the Seventies, Eighties and Nineties, the wrapping of the Reichstag was completed on June 24th, 1995 by a work force of 90 professional climbers and 120 installation workers. The Reichstag remained wrapped for 14 days and all materials were recycled.Ten companies in Germany started in September 1994 to manufacture all the various materials according to the specifications of the engineers. During the months of April, May and June 1995, ironworkers installed the steel structures on the towers, the roof, the statues and the stone vases to allow the folds of fabric to cascade from the roof down to the ground.
100,000 square meters (1,076,000 square feet) of thick woven polypropylene fabric with an aluminum surface and 15,600 meters (51,181 feet) of blue polypropylene rope, diameter 3.2 cm. (1.25?), were used for the wrapping of the Reichstag. The façades, the towers and the roof were covered by 70 tailor-made fabric panels, twice as much fabric as the surface of the building.
The Reichstag stands up in an open, strangely metaphysical area, The building has experienced its own continuous changes and perturbations: built in 1894, burned in 1933, almost destroyed in 1945, it was restored in the sixties, but the Reichstag always remained the symbol of Democracy. Throughout the history of art, the use of fabric has been a fascination for artists. From the most ancient times to the present, fabric, forming folds, pleats and draperies, is a significant part of paintings, frescoes, reliefs and sculptures made of wood, stone and bronze. The use of fabric on the Reichstag follows the classical tradition. Fabric, like clothing or skin, is fragile; it translates the unique quality of impermanence. For a period of two weeks, the richness of the silvery fabric, shaped by the blue ropes, created a sumptuous flow of vertical folds highlighting the features and proportions of the imposing structure, revealing the essence of the Reichstag.
The Reichstag, the former seat of a democratic German parliament had become a potent symbol of a city and country divide. It billows in the wind, it glows in the sun, and it is tailored as primly as a dress and engineered as heavily as a battleship. "Wrapped Reichstag," by Christo and his wife, Jean-Claude, is at once a work of art, a cultural event, a political happening and an ambitious piece of business. It has got Berlin into more of a celebratory mood than anything since the fall of the wall five and a half years ago, and as the immense project of wrapping the 101-year-old German Parliament building in more than a million square feet of aluminum-colored fabric nears its completion, crowds gather day and night to gawk, to cheer as sections of cloth are unfurled. |
The artists think of the actual wrapping as only the final chapter in a 24-year work: which is perhaps why the notion of leaving it up for only two weeks does not disturb them. The entire work, in their view, is as much a study in the way attitudes are transformed over time as a pure object in itself.
The building is shimmering where it once was solid, refined where it once was gross and heavy. But it has lost none of its power. The real transformation this work offers is not in any concept of the Reichstag, but in the idea of monumentality itself. The wrapped Reichstag makes lightness and softness, two qualities associated with intimate if not trivial objects, into characteristics of the greatest monumental power. It is a transformation that is particularly poignant right now in a country struggling over questions of identity with as much anguish, surely, as any nation in the world. If the architecture of the Reichstag represents a kind of Prussian hardness -- Germany as it was -- the wrapped version can almost be seen as an ideal symbol of the new Germany struggling to emerge from unification. In any event, there could not be a better moment in history to wrap the Reichstag, if only because of the natural symbolism of unwrapping it now, a chrysalis out of which the new Germany may emerge. Though it was built only in 1884 to house the Parliament of the recently unified German empire, it is as redolent of history as any building in Berlin.
The building is shimmering where it once was solid, refined where it once was gross and heavy. But it has lost none of its power. The real transformation this work offers is not in any concept of the Reichstag, but in the idea of monumentality itself. The wrapped Reichstag makes lightness and softness, two qualities associated with intimate if not trivial objects, into characteristics of the greatest monumental power. It is a transformation that is particularly poignant right now in a country struggling over questions of identity with as much anguish, surely, as any nation in the world. If the architecture of the Reichstag represents a kind of Prussian hardness -- Germany as it was -- the wrapped version can almost be seen as an ideal symbol of the new Germany struggling to emerge from unification. In any event, there could not be a better moment in history to wrap the Reichstag, if only because of the natural symbolism of unwrapping it now, a chrysalis out of which the new Germany may emerge. Though it was built only in 1884 to house the Parliament of the recently unified German empire, it is as redolent of history as any building in Berlin.
Activity:
In groups, or as an individual, complete the Conceptual Framework activity worksheet.
*You will need to select ONE artwork by Christo and Jeanne-Claude to focus on.
Submit your responses to your Weebly.
*You will need to select ONE artwork by Christo and Jeanne-Claude to focus on.
Submit your responses to your Weebly.
Created by N. Usher for Gilroy Catholic College, 2014.