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10/2/2005

Christo and Jeanne-Claude

Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach

An exhibition at the Bass Museum of Art offers an exciting opportunity to see the whole artistic process behind large-scale finished public art projects by the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude, from their earliest to their latest work: The Gates, an installation of 7,500 fabric gates in New York’s Central Park this month

The presentation of Christo and Jeanne-Claude: The Würth Museum Collection at the Bass Museum of Art is made possible by a grant from the Audrey Love Charitable Foundation.

The exhibition, organized by the Trust for Museum Exhibitions, features preparatory sketches; large collages containing pencil drawings, maps, topography and fabric used in the installations; small-scale completed work and wrapped objects; and photographs of large-scale finished projects. This collection of more than 65 works has never been seen together in the United States.

The exhibition also provides a special opportunity to revisit one of Greater Miami’s most memorable visual endeavors: Surrounded Islands, 1983, when the artists wrapped 11 spoil islands in Biscayne Bay. The luminous pink color of the fabric used in that project formed a unique harmony with the tropical landscape of the verdant islands, the light of the Miami sky and the colors of the shallow waters of the bay.

All objects in the exhibition at the Bass Museum come from the Würth Museum in Künselsau, Germany, where they comprise the second largest collection of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s work in Europe. The objects were collected and donated by Reinhold Würth, a manufacturing magnate who ranks among the world’s top 200 collectors, according to ARTNews. His excellent eye and relationship with Christo and Jeanne-Claude have resulted in a comprehensive collection that covers all their major projects.

Besides Surrounded Islands, Project for Biscayne Bay and The Gates, Project for Central Park, New York; other large projects presented include: Wrapped Coast, Project for Australia, Little Bay; Valley Curtain, Project for Rifle, Colorado; Running Fence, Project for Sonoma and Main Counties, California; Pont Neuf Wrapped, Paris; Umbrellas, Joint Project for Japan and USA; and Wrapped Reichstag, Project for Berlin (in a scale model).

The exhibition at the Bass Museum of Art will be complemented by the screening of five films about Christo and Jeanne-Claude by the Maysles brothers. Islands, a documentary on the Biscayne Bay Project, will be shown on February 27, 3 pm; Umbrellas, a poignant look at the installation of more than 3,000 umbrellas along scenic fields in Japan and Southern California, on Sunday, April 3, 3 pm. All screenings are free with museum admission.

Other films to be shown in conjunction with the exhibition (dates and times to be announced) are: Christo’s Valley Curtain, an Academy Award-nominated look at the construction of a massive curtain of orange fabric in Rifle Gap, Colorado; Running Fence, which depicts Christo’s struggle to build a 24-mile fence of white fabric over the hills of California; and Christo in Paris, which tracks Christo’s escape from Bulgaria, his early years as a struggling artist, his romance with Jeanne-Claude, and the fulfillment of a ten-year obsession to wrap the Pont Neuf.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude: The Würth Museum Collection will be on view at the Bass Museum through June 26. A soft-cover, 128-page exhibition catalog and a commemorative poster are available for sale in the Bass Museum Shop.

Bass Museum of Art
2121 Park Avenue Miami Beach, Florida USA
Museum Hours:
Tuesday–Saturday 10 am–5 pm,
Sunday 11 am–5 pm,
second Thursdays 10 am-9 pm,
closed Mondays and holidays.

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