- 13
Christo
Description
- Christo
- Wrapped Couch, Project
- signed, titled and dated 1973
- paper collage, fabric, polyethylene, twine, chalk, wax crayon, graphite and staples on card laid down on panel
- 71.5 by 56cm.; 28 1/8 by 22in.
Provenance
Condition
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Catalogue Note
The wrapping of the couch imbues a sense of mystery, which was modified when the project was realised the following year. Here Christo left a portion of the couch partially revealed, heightening the latent inevitability – as with all Christo’s wrapping the viewer is always fully aware what really lies beneath. This distances his work from that of Man Ray, who pioneered this wrapped aesthetic with his covered sewing machine, The Enigma of Isidore Ducass, 1920. This highly evocative title invites sensational fantasies from the viewer regarding the substance of the veiled object. Alternatively, Christo offers a new perspective on recognisable objects of which we know their inherent character prior to the wrapping. Thus, he invites perceptive participation whilst resisting utilitarian engagement. As noted by Lawrence Alloway, “the function of these objects is interrupted by Christo at the level of use, not symbolism. He is not making the objects enigmatic or dreamlike; he is violating our operational relationship to the objects” (Lawrence Alloway, ‘Packages’ in: Exhibition Catalogue, Berlin, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein and Martin-Gropius-Bau, Christo and Jeanne Claude: Early works 1958-1969, 2001, p. 56). Christo’s engagement is physical and behavioural, distanced from the underlying eroticism of Man Ray’s surrealism.
This is evinced here by the skilfully produced plan, diagrammatic in form yet imbued with sensual textures and stark chiaroscuro to substantiate the artist’s vision. As noted by the eminent critic behind the development of Nouveau Réalisme, Pierre Restany “the marks he [Christo] creates here are first glance indications, the textile imprint of the way the artist perceived the object to be wrapped” (Pierre Restany, ‘Les Murmure des voiles: The whisper of the Veils’, in: Exhibition Catalogue, Nice, Muse d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain, Christo: from the Lilja Collection, 1989, p. 23). The idea of the package as the imprint of perception fits with the overriding Nouveau Réalisme: the logic of an industrial and urban approach to art which solidly binds the present work to wider themes represented within this collection.