In the summer of 1972, 200,200 square feet of woven orange nylon fabric was raised above Highway 325 in the Grand Hogback Mountain Range, 7 miles outside of Rifle, Colorado. Valley Curtain, 1970–1972, was an environmental artwork of monumental scale, spanning the Rifle Gap at a width of 1,250 feet and a height of 365 feet at each side. Considered an early work of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, the curtain was conceived towards the end of the artists' first decade of collaboration.
28 months of diligent preparation culminated as a team of construction workers and volunteers secured the final of 27 ropes on the morning of August 10th. Due to wind gusts, the work had to be deinstalled just 28 hours after it was put in place. Engaging with ideas of temporality and transience, Valley Curtain embodied an exploration of the relationship between humans and nature. Like many of the duo’s other immense environmental projects, the fleeting essence of the work paired with its sheer size challenged preconceived notions of what should be considered art. As they forged new connections between landscape and nature, the pair sought to make their art accessible to all, extending their creative impact beyond the walls of galleries and museums.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude refused to accept any corporate sponsorship or grants, choosing to fund their large-scale projects themselves by selling small scale models, drawings and prints. Preparatory sketches and collages like the present lot represent key stepping stones in both the conceptual and financial foundational structures of the work. These precursory works reflect the meticulous engineering and planning necessary to accomplish a project of such scale, underscoring the artistic process behind the projects as much as the final product.
The present lot comes from the collection of iconic fashion designer Willi Smith, appearing in the photographs of Smith’s apartment for a 1980 House & Garden magazine home makeover feature. Smith is often credited as a key driving force behind the democratization of fashion and the birth of streetwear. A friend and collaborator of many artists in the 70s and 80s, Smith worked on t-shirt designs and various fashion projects with many prominent figures of the scene such as Robert Rauschenberg, Les Levine, Nam June Paik, Arman, Futura, Keith Haring, Jenny Holzer and Barbara Kruger. He was close with Christo and Jeanne-Claude, living nearby on the other side of Canal Street in New York, and following many of the duo’s projects. For their 1983 Surrounded Islands work in Florida, Smith produced pink long-sleeve shirts with the project name printed in blue ink and matching white caps. The merchandise was worn by over 500 members of the workforce involved with the installation and supervision of Surrounded Islands. Several thousand more shirts, made for sale as souvenirs, were turned down by local stores and had to be sold off the back of a truck. The t-shirts were a success, aligning with Christo’s ideas of creating art that was accessible to everyone and rooted in real world contexts. A decade prior to this project in Biscayne Bay, Smith travelled to Rifle to witness the installation of their 1972 Valley Curtain in Colorado, despite the logistic challenge of getting there.i In commemoration of this project, Smith received the present lot from the couple to add to his collection of other Christo works, including a wrapped copy of the book Modern Art and prints from the portfolio (Some) Not Realized Projects that he proudly displayed in his New York home.
