Modernt & samtida
Till katalogen
In Context
Lots to be sold at Uppsala Auktionskammare’s Important Sale: Modern & Contemporary 9 – 12 November 2021
Presented in this collection are two separate works titled ”Running Fence (Project for Sonoma County and Marin County, State of California)” from the Running Fence project by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, both dated in the year of 1974.
Finally completed on September 10, 1976 and lasting for fourteen days, Running Fence was an impressive monumental installation consisting of a great white wall that extended over the landscapes in the Sonoma and Marin Counties in California, with the artist’s word as a ”ribbon of light” (Christo quoted in S. Adler, Christo Collection on loan from the Rotschild Bank AG, Zurich, La Jolla 1981). The 5.5 meters high and 39.4 kilometres long white wall was, as all of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s projects, a result of months of collaborative efforts. The wall started north of San Francisco, close to U.S. Highway 101 and went through the properties of no less than 59 different ranchers, followed the rolling hills and finally dropped down to the Pacific Ocean at Bodega Bay. Running Fence crossed fourteen roads and the town of Valley Ford, designed to be viewed by the public from 64 kilometres of public roads.
The temporary artwork was made out of 200.000 square meters of heavy woven white nylon fabric that was hung from a steel cable between steel poles embedded in the ground. When installing the foundations of the installation no concrete was used, instead the wall was secured by wires and earth anchors, since the entire part of the project was agreed to be removable, leaving no traces of it for the future in the nature – no remains are to be found on the hills of the Sonoma and Marin Counties today. The removal started fourteen days after it was completed as had been agreed with the ranchers and the county, state and federal agencies. Like all of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s projects, they would not have been able to complete without the effort of a great number of volunteers and enthusiasts.
In the present collages included in this sale we get a glimpse of the monumental character of this mind-blowing project. Christo reveals the impressive scale of the project, giving the viewer a glimpse to imagine what the final outcome is to become. As in all of their projects, Christo and Jeanne-Claude used the sale of their preparatory works to finance their installations. Running Fence is regarded as one of the major early works by the renowned duo, and Christo and Jeanne-Claude spent a lot of time with the 59 ranch owners, convincing them to believe in their project and allow them to temporarily use their properties for the large-scale artwork. In the area around, it is said that the artist himself made as much of an impression on the local community as his artwork did. Cited below is the words of Joe Pozzi, sharing his memories of the Running Fence project in the magazine What’s New in Sonoma County, in the article ”Christo’s Running Fence: Photos, Stories and Memories” by Glen Martin published in June 2020. At the time of the project Pozzi, then a teenager, was living at the family ranch together with his parents and siblings. Christo and Jeanne-Claude visited their ranch several times and shared a meal in the kitchen, it is clear that Christo made a great impact told from vivid memories: “He was incredibly charismatic, but it was more than that. He was genuine. There was a warm human quality to him that you just felt. There was nothing slick or pretentious about him. Ranchers and farmers intuitively sense character in a person. He didn’t get the ‘Running Fence’ built because he sold anybody around here on the idea. They got behind him because they liked and trusted him. Everyone came to understand Christo was an artist, an important artist, and that the ‘Running Fence’ was a major art project, but that wasn’t why he appealed to us. It was more that he shared similar qualities with the agricultural community. It’s something of a paradox. We’re independent, but we also rely on each other, we’re ready to help out at a moment’s notice. And we like to get things done, to conceive a project and then work hard to see it through. Christo had a project that he wanted to get done. He wasn’t going to step on anyone to do it, but it was important to him, and he asked for our help.” ■