Christo: John Kaldor Family Collection Artist Room

Christo’s wrapping of Little Bay, Sydney, in 1969 was the first Kaldor Public Art Project and one of the most important early environmental or land artworks in the world.

This exhibition is the first in a series of touring ‘artist rooms’ drawing on the Kaldor collection and is a touring exhibition from the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Christo is known, with his life and work partner Jeanne-Claude (1935–2009), for ‘wrapping’ public monuments, buildings and features of the landscape as well as his own projects wrapping smaller objects.

Born in 1935 in Bulgaria and now living and working in New York, Christo began this technique – which recalls drapery from classical sculpture and painting – in the late 1950s.

In 1969, Christo and Jeanne-Claude directed a team of mountain climbers, workers and volunteers in wrapping 2.5 kilometres of Sydney coastline with more than 90,000 square metres of fabric. It was the first Kaldor Public Art Project and one of the most important early environmental or land art works anywhere in the world and the largest single artwork that had ever been made.

This display from the Art Gallery of NSW, which includes the John Kaldor Family Collection, is the first in an intended series of touring ‘artist rooms’ drawing on the Kaldor collection.

 

 

Image above: 

Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Wrapped Coast, One Million Square Feet, Little Bay, Sydney, Australia 1968-69. gelatine silver photograph, 62.3 x 77.5 x 3.4cm, Photo: Harry Shunk

Image below: 

Christo, The Umbrellas, Project for Japan and Western USA, 1986. Collage: wax crayon, pastel, fabric, pencil, 67 x 78 x 2.5 cm board, 68 x 79 x 4.5 cm Perspex box

 

When

Location

Museum of Art and Culture Lake Macquarie, 1A First Street, Booragul 2284  View in Google Maps