Christo and Jeanne-Claude, the politics of their art: part 2

Christo and Jeanne-Claude, the Politics of their Art: How they are (shrewdly and discreetly) Socialist, Anti-American and Revolutionary - part 2

The Christos act as a corporation, and a large one at that. One with millions of dollars coming in and out of its bank accounts annually, conducting business in all of the major industrialized countries of the world. Characteristic of a business, they are concerned with their brand and the exclusiveness of what they do. They are relentless self-promoters constantly selling themselves, never missing an opportunity to correct misconceptions concerning their brand, aware and taking serious care of their public image. "They impress the public through the media with the kind of statistical data churned out by corporate America […] so that their prestige and power is validated and indirectly endorsed." Notice how carefully calculated this press release for The Umbrellas has been worded:

At sunrise, on October 9th, 1991, Christo and Jeanne-Claude's 1,880 workers began to open the 3,100 umbrellas in Ibaraki and California, in the presence of the artists.
This Japan-USA temporary work of art reflected the similarities and differences in the ways of life and the use of the land in two inland valleys, one 19 kilometers (12 miles) long in Japan, and the other 29 kilometers (18 miles) long in the USA.
In Japan, the valley is located north of Hitachiota and south of Satomi, 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of Tokyo, around Route 349 and the Sato River, in the Prefecture of Ibaraki, on the properties of 459 private landowners and governmental agencies.
In the U.S.A., the valley is located 96.5 kilometers (60 miles) north of Los Angeles, along Interstate 5 and the Tejon Pass, between south of Gorman and Grapevine, on the properties of Tejon Ranch, 25 private landowners as well as governmental agencies.
Eleven manufacturers in Japan, USA, Germany and Canada prepared the various elements of The Umbrellas: fabric, aluminum super-structures, steel frame bases, anchors, wooden base supports, bags and molded base covers. All 3,100 umbrellas were assembled in Bakersfield, California, from where the 1,340 blue umbrellas were shipped to Japan.
Starting in December 1990, with a total work force of 500, Muto Construction Co. Ltd. in Ibaraki, and A. L. Huber and Son in California installed the earth anchors and steel bases. The sitting platform / base covers were placed during August and September 1991.
From September 19 to October 7, 1991, an additional construction work force began transporting The Umbrellas to their assigned bases, bolted them to the receiving sleeves, and elevated the umbrellas to an upright closed position. On October 4, students, agricultural workers, and friends, (960 in USA and 920 in Japan,) joined the work force to complete the installation of The Umbrellas. Each umbrella was 6 meters (19 feet 8 inches) high and 8.66 meters (26 feet 5 inches) in diameter.
The artists entirely financed their 26 million dollar temporary work of art through The Umbrellas, Joint Project for Japan and U.S.A. Corporation (Jeanne-Claude Christo-Javacheff, president). Previous projects by the artists have all been financed in a similar manner through the sale of the studies, preparatory drawings, collages, scale models, early works, and original lithographs. The artists do not accept any sponsorship.
The removal started on October 27 and the land was restored to its original condition. The Umbrellas were taken apart and all elements were recycled.
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 in 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.

They use new world media to its full potential and their full advantage, embracing more traditional forms of self propaganda such as television and print, as well as more contemporary forms like film and the internet. They willingly give interviews regularly (with plenty of notice months in advance, of course) and have been the subject of 10 documentary films, each on a particular project of theirs. They regularly invite and pay for directors to make the documentaries though they never profit from them, documentation a key means of preserving and proliferating the concepts and significance of their work. Visit their website and you will find a cleverly arranged overabundance of information. The site openly supports discussion of their works, all that is missing is a message board. Extremely positive in tone, it looks and feels like a commercial website and would be more than helpful for anyone who is simply curious or someone more seriously studying the Christos and their work. The Q-A section includes common errors concerning the Christos and their art, protecting their corporate image without fail. Their projects are never overtly political. Not since 1962 when they executed their last blatantly political major work Wall of Oil Barrels, Iron Curtain (1962, Rue Visconti, Paris, France), with the sole notable exception of The Wall - 13,000 Oil Barrels, (1999, Gasometer, Oberhausen, Germany), have their projects spurred any sort of immediate political response. Conceived in Paris, Wall of Oil Barrels, Iron Curtain postdated the erection of the Berlin Wall by a year in a time during the Algerian war when there were numerous demonstrations taking place on the streets of Paris. Their work has since been much more subtle and layered particularly to those unfamiliar with the art world, far more aesthetically oriented than politically or socially, but only at first. "Ask anything,” Jeanne-Claude said before a recent interview for National Geographic, “but we do not talk of religion, politics, or other artists.” They are very aware of their public image indeed.

The Christos play the part of corporate CEOs very well, as consumed and work-obsessed as any of New York’s wealthiest executives, the glaring difference being that their company makes and runs successfully on zero profit (and even more successfully when in the red). Their product can never be sold or owned. And “unlike some promoters and marketing executives, the Christos indeed fabricate and build the monuments that they promise.” They are simultaneously the essence and antithesis of big business. Early in their careers, recently transplanted to America, they exhibited in Gallery Castelli in New York, but by 1968 they had left the gallery in order to retain their personal and artistic autonomy. They have never looked back since.

To be continued. For references, leave me a comment.