Christo

CHRISTO (Bulgaria, 1935–2020) and JEANNE CLAUDE DE GUILLEBON (Morocco, 1935 – United States, 2009).
“The Mastaba, Project for the United Arab Emirates.”
Offset lithograph.
Hand-signed.
Includes publication information.
Measurements: 60 x 50 cm.

The Mastaba project was conceived by Christo and Jeanne-Claude in 1977 for the Liwa Desert, approximately 160 km (100 miles) south of the city of Abu Dhabi. Although it could not be realized during the artists’ lifetimes, its posthumous execution is planned; it will consist of creating the world’s largest “mastaba” or contemporary three-dimensional sculpture, made of 410,000 multicolored barrels to form a colorful mosaic that echoes Islamic architecture (it is worth noting that a mastaba is a type of ancient Egyptian tomb with a rectangular base, flat roof, and sloping side walls, built of adobe blocks or stone). The Mastaba will be 150 meters (492 feet) high, 300 meters (984 feet) long along the vertical walls, and 225 meters (738 feet) wide along the walls sloping at a 60-degree angle. The feasibility of this immense project is supported by the fact that, in 2007 and 2008, Christo and Jeanne-Claude hired engineering professors from ETH Zürich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich), the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the U.S., the University of Cambridge in the U.K., and Hosei University in Tokyo, Japan, to conduct feasibility studies. Ultimately, the concept proposed by Hosei University was deemed the most sound and innovative from a technical standpoint. Once government approval is obtained, the construction period will last at least three years, and it will be a self-financed project that will not require government funding, as is the case with all of the artistic duo’s projects.

A renowned artistic duo of the late 20th century, Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s wrapped objects are among the most extreme examples of conceptual art. Christo Valdimirov Javacheff studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia from 1952 to 1956, after which he spent a year in Prague. In 1957, Christo fled the socialist state and settled in Vienna, from where he traveled to Geneva and finally to Paris. His life in Paris was marked by financial hardship and social isolation, which was exacerbated by his difficulty in learning French. He earned money by painting portraits, which he compared to prostitution. In January 1958, Christo created his first “wrapped art” piece; he covered an empty paint can with a canvas soaked in acrylic paint. Christo and Jeanne-Claude met in Paris in November 1958. In 1961, he undertook what would be his first project involving large-scale objects, wrapping barrels in the port of Cologne. In 1962, Christo and Jeanne-Claude undertook their first monumental project, “Rideau de fer,” as a statement against the Berlin Wall. The work consisted of blocking Visconti Street, located along the river, with oil barrels. Although Christo was simultaneously holding his first gallery exhibition, it was the Visconti project that brought him to prominence in Paris. In 1964, the couple settled in New York. In 1968, they participated in Documenta 4 in Kassel, and in 1969 they undertook one of their most famous projects: wrapping the coastline of Little Bay in Sydney, Australia. Since then, they have carried out numerous large-scale projects around the world, including “Running Fence” and “Wrapped Walkways” in the United States, “Pont Neuf” in Paris, “Umbrellas” in the United States and Japan, and the Reichstag building in Germany.