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To be sold at Uppsala Auktionskammare’s Important Sale: Modern & Contemporary 18 – 20 May 2022
Lot 346 Christo ”Surrounded Islands (Project for Biscayne Bay, Greater Miami, Florida)”. Signed and dated Christo 1983 lower left of the upper element. Fabric, charcoal, wax crayon, graphite, enamel paint and printed aerial photograph in plexiglass box (two parts). Upper element: 28.5 x 72 cm. Lower element: 56.5 x 72 cm.
1.000.000 – 1.500.000 SEK
€ 96.000 – 144.000
Art dealer Carl Flach, Stockholm, sold in 1983.
A Swedish private collection.
The striking pink installation of the Surrounded Islands took place during just two weeks in May 1983 in the Biscayne Bay of Miami. Covering the coastlines of eleven islands in the bay that were encircled with millions of square feet of pink fabric is regardless one of the most noted installations by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. As all of their monumental environmental works of art, the projects by Christo and Jeanne-Claude are the result of years of careful planning, studying and preparations before the actual execution was completed and presented to the public in its large-scale grandness.
The story of Christo and Jeanne-Claude is one of the utmost love stories of the 20th century art world. Being husband and wife but also life partners in the creation of their monumental works of art, has forever placed them in the history as one of the most consistent and collaborative couples that made a huge impact on the boundaries of the traditional artistries of our time. Born on the same day of June 13 in the year of 1935, Jeanne-Claude saw the daylight in Casablanca, French Morocco and Christo in Bulgaria. The couple met for the first time in Paris in the late 1950s when Christo was commissioned to paint a portrait of Jeanne-Claude’s mother. They started working together, initially only using the name ”Christo”, however later credited their installations to both ”Christo and Jeanne-Claude”. They were always thinking large, abandoning all limitations and only saw possibilities and new adventures to explore. Their visually impressive, sometimes even controversial, works were always a result of years, sometimes even decades, of careful preparations that included technical challenges and solutions, political negotiations, approvals and permissions, hearings and public persuasion. Christo and Jeanne-Claude never accepted any donations, public money or grants, all of their projects were completely financed by the sale of their own artworks, drawings and collages, making the preparatory phase when planning, sketching and visualizing the project not only the everlasting part of their projects but also the base of their artistry.
The Surrounded Islands project pays a tribute to the people of Miami, to the characteristic life in the environment between land and water. Christo had started to think of a project in Miami already in the year of 1974, as he told in an interview in The New York Times on May 5, 1983: ”I had visited Miami earlier, and was very influenced by the flatness and horizontality of the landscape; also the way earth and water mix gently here. And then there’s the relationship of people to it. They use Biscayne Bay as a water, rather than a grass, park.” However, it was Jeanne-Claude who during the couple’s visit in Miami in the year of 1980 started to think about surrounding the islands of the bay with fabric. The project of the Surrounded Islands was originally scheduled to take place a year earlier, in 1982 during the New World Festival for the Arts but was delayed due to extensional testing and waiting for different permissions. Attorneys, biologists, ornithologists, mammal experts and marine engineers started working on the project two years earlier. The preparations also included picking up trash from the coastlines of each of the eleven islands, a total of approximately 40 tons of garbage were collected.
The installation of the project started on May 4, comprising of a total work force of 430 persons. Systematically they started to unfurl the pink fabric, all overseen by Christo and Jeanne-Claude who carefully followed the execution from different boats. After three days the installation was completed, the surface of the eleven islands were covered with a total of 603.870 square meters of floating shimmering pink wowed polypropylene fabric, sewn in 79 patterns to follow the contours of the different islands. The fabric extended 61 meters out from each island into the bay, ending with an outer edge to a 30.5 cm diameter octagonal boom in sections, certainly in the same colour as the fabric. The boom was connected to different anchors that kept the fabric in place. 120 monitors in inflatable boats tended the installation day and night during the entire period.
The result of the Surrounded Islands was astonishing, making people gather from all over the world to view this remarkable project from land, ocean and air. The islands appeared like giant blossoms in the most vibrant luminous colour, a true match to the tropical environment, stunningly contrasting against the blue-green tones of the water, where the colour of the dawn found its perfect match in the enormous masses of shiny pink fabric. Some people even compared their experience of the installation as a contemporary parable to the grand impressionist Claude Monet’s famous paintings of water lilies. ”Thanks to Christo, people will now see those once-grubby islands as jewels,’” said Jan van der Marck, director of Miami’s new Center for the Fine Arts, in The New York Times on May 5, 1983. ■