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Lot Essay
Running Fence (project for California) 1976 is a preparatory drawing for the Running Fence project created over the period of 1972-1976. Finally executed by Christo in 1976 and lasting for fourteen days, it was an impressive 5.5m high and 40km long white material wall that extended over the Sonoma and Marin Counties, California like a "ribbon of light". (Christo quoted in S. Adler, Christo Collection on loan from the Rothschild Bank AG, Zurich, La Jolla 1981, introduction).
In this particular photo-collage, Christo, close to realising the Running Fence, reveals the tremendous scale of the project, giving the viewer a glimpse of the final outcome. Yet we are reminded, with a note of measurements and medium, that this large work is a collaborative effort, and requires a meticulous understanding of engineering processes.
Christo's large projects begin and end as visual ideas, at first, his drawings document the uneven steps in the development process from the idea to the finished project, and through the sales of the wealth of these supportive and documentary works alone, originally helped to realise Christo's tremendous projects.
Although Christo's true works are the actual physical projects themselves temporary in nature, once removed, they are confined to the spaces of our memory. It is therefore significant that these drawings grasp a record of what was becoming, as elements of the process, works of art in themselves.
In this particular photo-collage, Christo, close to realising the Running Fence, reveals the tremendous scale of the project, giving the viewer a glimpse of the final outcome. Yet we are reminded, with a note of measurements and medium, that this large work is a collaborative effort, and requires a meticulous understanding of engineering processes.
Christo's large projects begin and end as visual ideas, at first, his drawings document the uneven steps in the development process from the idea to the finished project, and through the sales of the wealth of these supportive and documentary works alone, originally helped to realise Christo's tremendous projects.
Although Christo's true works are the actual physical projects themselves temporary in nature, once removed, they are confined to the spaces of our memory. It is therefore significant that these drawings grasp a record of what was becoming, as elements of the process, works of art in themselves.