On View Magazine Fall 2015 | Page 121

S P O T L I G H T

Christo is best known for the
monumental projects he and
his late wife and collaborator,
Jeanne-Claude, accomplished
over nearly four decades. These
include the 24.5 mile-long Running Fence in California’s Sonoma and Marin Counties
(1976), the Wrapped Reichstag
(Project for Berlin) (1995), and
the epic-scale crowd pleaser,

The Gates (2005), which comprised 7,053 fabric banners that
spanned the walkways of New
York’s Central Park.
XTO+J-C presents the artist’s
important Wrapped Package
(1960) alongside many drawings and collages related to his
early wrapped objects—chairs,
road signs, motorcycles, and other commonplace items that disrupt our relationship to the everyday through their concealment.
The exhibition also includes
Christo’s large-scale Store Front
(1965–66) and a related series of
Show Windows from the early
’70s, which signal an expansion
of the artist’s sculptural practice
to a new environmental realm.
Taken together, this exhibition features more than 50
works by Christo, and also highlights recent gifts from The
David C. Copley Foundation and
the artist himself, in recognition
of Copley’s patronage and support of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego over the
years. The late David C. Copley
was the most prolific collector
of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s
work in the US. O n V iew

opposite page:
Christo, Wrapped Portrait of
Jeanne-Claude, 1963. oil on
canvas portrait painted by
Christo Javacheff, Wrapped with
polyethylene and rope by
Christo. Collection Museum of
Contemporary Art San Diego,
Gift of David C. Copley Foundation. 
© CHRISTO 1963. Photo: Christian Baur.

this page
(clockwise from top left):
1. Christo, Jeanne-Claude, Wrapped
Reichstag (Project for Berlin), 1991.
Collection Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Gift of David C.
Copley Foundation. ©CHRISTO 1991.
Photo: André Grossmann.
2. Christo, Package, 1960. Collection
Museum of Contemporary Art
San Diego, Gift of the artist.
© CHRISTO 1960. Photo: Eeva-Inkeri.
3. Christo, Jeanne-Claude, Running
Fence, Sonoma and Marin Counties,
california, 1972-1976. photo:
Wolfgang Volz. © CHRISTO 1976.