(Gabrovo, Bulgaria 1935–2020 New York)
The Umbrellas (project for Japan and Western USA), 1986, signed, titled and dated, mixed media (graphite, charcoal, wax crayon, pastel, fabric collage) on paper, with original wood and lucite frame 66.7 x 77.5 cm

This work is accompanied by a photo certificate issued by Daniel Varenne

We are grateful to the Archive Christo and Jeanne Claude for the assistance to the cataloging of this work

Provenance:
Obelisk Gallery, Boston, Massachussets (label on the reverse)
Sale Christie's New York, 19 September 2012
Sale Ketterer Kunst, Munich, 8 June 2013, lot 292 (label on the reverse)
European Private Collection

At sunrise, on October 9th, 1991, Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s 1880 workers began to open the 3,100 umbrellas in Ibaraki and California, in the presence of the artists.
This Japan-USA temporay work of art reflected the similiarities and differences in the ways of life and the use of the land in two inland valleys, one 19 kilomters (12 miles) long in Japan, and the other 29 kilometers (18 miles) long in the USA.

The Umbrellas, free standing dynamic modules, reflected the availability of the land in each valley, creating an invitational inner space, as houses without walls, or temporary settlements and related to the ephemeral character of the work of art. In the precious and limited space of Japan, The Umbrellas, were positioned intimately, close together and sometimes following the geometry of the rice fields. In the luxuriant vegetation enriched by water year round, The Umbrellas were blue.
In the California vastness of uncultivated grazing land, the configuration of the umbrellas was whimsical and spreading in every direction. The brown hills are covered by blond grass, and I that dry landscape, The Umbrellas were yellow.
From October 9th, 1991 for a period of eighteen days, The Umbrellas were seen, approached, and enjoyed by the public, either by car from a distance and closer as they bordered the roads, or by walking under The Umbrellas in their luminous shadows.

Albert Ensen, Ettore Camuffo e Laura Tansini, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Corsoveneziaotto – Tega Arte Contemporanea, exh.cat., 2004