Christo and Jeanne-Claude, The Umbrellas,Japan-USA, 1984-91. | Photo: Wolfgang Volz. 1991 Christo.
Art in the public realm challenges our understanding of engagement, interaction and memory, testing our belief that the world around us is a wonderland of curiosity, discovery, and indefinite knowledge. Public artwork often endures acclaim and controversy in the communal and ecological fields of a mired social landscape. After first meeting in 1958, Christo and Jeanne-Claude have pioneered a legacy of environmental art which has both encountered debate and expanded the role of art in public/private interactions to redefine our awareness and recognition of work in the social sphere.
Their most recent artwork, The Floating Piers, was on view June 18 through July 3, transforming Italy's Lake Iseo with a modular floating dock system covered in a shimmering yellow fabric that turned shades of red and gold throughout the 16-day exhibition. Although free and open to the public, visitors were encouraged to check the weather forecast as rain and strong winds limited admission to the project, and tested the limits of public access due to natural elements -- a situation familiar to Christo and Jeanne-Claude and their history of environment projects.
The Umbrellas
Christo and Jeanne-Claude, The Umbrellas, Japan-USA, 1984-91. | Photo: Wolfgang Volz. 1991 Christo.
Near the top of the northwestern corner of Los Angeles County where the Sierra Pelona, Tehachapi, and San Emigdio Mountains meet, is a high pass that links Southern California to the Central Valley. Today it is popularly known as the Grapevine, a notorious road of traffic jams, overheated engines, and weather closures. The highly traversed route is one of the oldest continuously used trail and roadside rest stops in California, writes Bonnie Ketterl Kane in A History of Gorman, as the Native Americans would have stopped there when it was the Tataviam village of Kulshrajek. 1 The mountain meadows, streams, and panoramic valley views make it a popular stop for contemporary travelers, with California poppies, lupines, and other springtime wildflowers surfacing from the chaparral to cover the hills in hues of blue and yellow when there is sufficient rain.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude, The Umbrellas, Japan-USA, 1984-91. | Photo: Wolfgang Volz. 1991 Christo.
At this site on October 9 1991, environmental artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude began the opening of 3,100 umbrellas in a sprawling temporary work of public art intended to reflect similarities and differences in the ways of life and the use of the land of two inland valley locations across the Pacific Ocean. Eighteen miles along Interstate 5 between Gorman and the Grapevine blossomed with the daffodil yellow color of the umbrellas positioned on the properties of Tejon Ranch and private landowners. In synchronicity with the California site, 12 miles of cobalt blue umbrellas were hoisted north of Tokyo, Japan around Route 349 and the Sato River, in the prefecture of Ibaraki. The blue and yellow colors of the umbrellas were selected to emulate the landscape of Japans watery rice field geography, in contrast with the arid grassland of the California high desert.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude, The Umbrellas, Japan-USA, 1984-91. | Photo: Wolfgang Volz. 1991 Christo.
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Each umbrella stood more than 19 feet high, opened to a 28-foot diameter, and weighed 448 pounds generating an environmental exhibition that allowed the public to interact, touch, photograph and experience the installations. The Umbrellas were designed to be enjoyed as free standing modules, which Christo and Jeanne-Claude described as a symbol for shelter, against both rain and sun. It is an image that is easily understood, by any age, any country, any civilization, and this, for the past 4,800 years, since the umbrella shape was invented in Mesopotamia. 2 The thousands of giant umbrellas placed alongside rivers, roads, and throughout the surrounding landscape created a temporary settlement for picnics, tourism, weddings and unexpectedly, the deaths of a tourist in California, and a worker in Japan.
Looking at topographic maps, and through the inspiration of walking, climbing, and surveying the land, the 3,100 umbrellas used in the project were chosen as the artists laid out their design in response to the two landscapes. Jeanne-Claude had wanted to limit the number and maximum cost of the project to 3,000 umbrellas, however the final count of 3,100 umbrellas reflected the aesthetics of the environment rather than any financial concerns over the budget. The reported $26 million cost of the project was financed by The Umbrellas, Joint Project for Japan and U.S.A. Corporation with the artists as presidents. Following a funding model that the artists employ to finance their works, The Umbrellas used no public or corporate sponsorship, relying instead on the sale of Christos affiliate ephemera including studies, preparatory drawings, collages, scale models and original lithographs, which were sold to art collectors, museums and galleries.
Christo, The Umbrellas (Joint Project for Japan and USA), 1990. Pencil, fabric, charcoal, pastel, wax crayon, enamel paint and topographic map. 26 1/4 x 12 in. and 26 1/4 x 30 1/2 in. | Photo: Wolfgang Volz. 1990 Christo Ref. # 165.
Most artwork created in the public realm is subject to extensive budget accountability and transparency of public funding. Christo and Jeanne-Claude chose to retain control of their work by acting as their own art dealers, operating a business model that doesnt accept grants or licensing deals to assure they retained artistic freedom and ultimately financial management over their work. Without publicly reported financials, the artists are often accused of conceptually inflating the costs of their projects including the $26 million price t
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Christo and Jeanne-Claude, The Umbrellas,Japan-USA, 1984-91. | Photo: Wolfgang Volz. 1991 Christo. 
