The Umbrellas, Joint Project for Japan and U.S.A.
1991
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View on museum website →Medium
pastel, enamel paint, graphite, colored pencil, wax crayon, aerial photograph with topographic contour map, technical data, and fabric sample, on two sheets of paperboard in two parts
Dimensions
sheet (left panel): 77.5 x 66.7 cm (30 1/2 x 26 1/4 in.) framed (left panel): 78.2 x 67.4 x 4.3 cm (30 13/16 x 26 9/16 x 1 11/16 in.) sheet (right panel): 77.5 x 30.5 cm (30 1/2 x 12 in.) framed (right panel): 78.2 x 31.3 x 4.3 cm (30 13/16 x 12 5/16 x 1 11/16 in.) overall (for both panels): 77.5 x 99.7 cm (30 1/2 x 39 1/4 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection
Accession Number
1999.4.3.a-b
Art Historical Context
Christo and Jeanne-Claude, visionary duo behind monumental temporary environmental installations, created *The Umbrellas, Project for Japan and U.A.* in 1991 as a preparatory drawing for one of their most ambitious projects. This intricate work on two sheets of paperboard as a blueprint for erecting 3,000 giant umbrellas—blue in Japan and yellow in California—stretching across rural valleys in both countries. Symbolizing cultural unity between the two nations, the project drew millions of visitors before its two-week display ended, with the umbrellas dramatically dismantled. The drawing maste...
About the Artist
Christo
Christo Vladimirov Javacheff, born on June 13, 1935, in Gabrovo, Bulgaria, emerged from a childhood marked by wartime upheaval and a bohemian family environment that nurtured his artistic inclinations. The second of three sons to a textile manufacturer father and a politically active mother who worked at Sofia's Academy of Fine Arts, Christo received private art lessons from a young age, with his ...