Live Auction 12157Post-War & Contemporary Art Morning Sale
Christo (b. 1935)
Lot 304

Christo (b. 1935)

The Umbrellas (Project for Japan and Western-USA)

Closed16 November 2016

Price Realised

USD 217,500

Considering selling a similar item?

Discover its value with a complimentary estimate from our specialists.

More Information

How to sell

Christo (b. 1935)
The Umbrellas (Project for Japan and Western-USA)
smaller element: titled 'The Umbrellas (Joint Project for Japan and USA)' (upper edge); signed and dated 'Christo 1989' (lower left); inscribed and dated again '© CHRISTO 1989' (on the reverse)
larger element: inscribed twice and dated twice '© CHRISTO 1989' (on the reverse)
box construction--graphite, pastel, charcoal, crayon, topographic map, photograph by Wolfgang Volz, enamel paint, technical data and fabric sample, in two parts
smaller element: 90 x 15 in. (229.9 x 38 cm.)
larger element: 90 x 42 in. (229.9 x 106.6 cm.)
Executed in 1989.

Private collection, London, acquired directly from the artist
Anon. sale; Christie's, South Kensington, 6 April 2006, lot 410
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Specialist note

“’I seek the involuntary beauty of the ephemeral,’ Christo has said…Yet Christo is not founding an ideology of the ephemeral; he is creating a work of memory that subverts our arithmetical and linear image of eternity, so dependent on its representation in stone.” (D.G. Laporte, Christo, New York, 1985, p. 26)