The only natural choice

The Umbrellas, Joint Project for Japan and USA
Collage, 1991
Pencil, enamel paint, photograph by Wolfgang Volz, charcoal, crayon and tape
35,5 x 28 cm
New York, Collection Jeanne-Claude Christo

The most ambitious and costly project in the Christos' life as artists to date has been The Umbrellas, Japan/USA (1984-1991). For the first time, a project was brought to fruition in two locations simultaneously, making one work of art. The cost of the project was $26 million, and the logistics were nothing short of staggering. In Japan there were 1,340 blue umbrellas; in the USA, 1,760 yellow umbrellas. Each umbrella was 6 meters high including the base and 8.66 meters in diameter, and weighed about 200 kilograms. A total volume of 7,600 liters of paint was used; the structural aluminum materials included a total length of almost 18 kilometers of umbrella poles, almost 25,000 umbrella ribs and about as many struts, and 410,000 square meters of fabric in all. Needless to say, the usual permissions had to be sought from seventeen government and local community authorities in Japan, and twenty-seven in the United States, not to mention over 450 individual rice farmers and other landowners.

The Umbrellas, Joint Project for Japan and USA
Collage, 1991
Pencil, enamel paint, photograph by Wolfgang Volz, charcoal, crayon and tape
77.5 x 30.5 and 77.5 x 66.7cm
New York, Collection Jeanne-Claude Christo

When all was done, when all the hard preparation had been invested and the costs borne, the umbrellas were ready to be unfurled in rice fields, in a river, on hillsides, and in villages. At sunrise on October 9, 1991, 1,880 workers began to open the 3,100 umbrellas in Ibaraki and California, in the presence of the artists, ran the Christos' bulletin. This Japan-USA temporary work of art reflected the similarities and differences in the ways of life and the use of the land in two inland valleys, one 19 kilometers long (12 miles) in Japan, and the other 29 kilometers long (18 miles) in the USA.

The fabric, aluminum superstructure and steel frame bases, as well as the anchors, base supports and other components, had been made by 11 manufacturers in Japan, the USA, Germany and Canada. All of the umbrellas were assembled at Bakersfield in California, and from there the 1,340 blue umbrellas were shipped to Japan.

The Umbrellas, Japan - USA
1984-1991
(in California)
1,340 blue umbrellas each 6 m high and 8.66 m in diameter
Foto: Wolfgang Volz

Beginning in December 1990, with a work-force totalling 500, Muto Construction Co. Ltd. in Ibaraki, and A. L. Huber & Son in California, installed the earth anchors and bases, with work continuing through to September 1991. At that point, from September 19 to October 7, an additional construction force (the word is Christo's the husband of the French general's daughter seems often to approach his tasks in an almost military style) transported the umbrellas to their bases, bolted them in, and raised them to an upright but closed position. This team was joined on October 4 by over 900 further workers in each country students, farm workers and friends to complete installation. (Removal began on October 27; the land was restored to its original condition, and all the materials recycled.)

The umbrellas, wrote the Christos, free-standing dynamic modules, reflected the availability of the land in each valley, creating an invitational inner space, as houses without walls, or temporary settlements [...] In the precious and limited space of Japan, the umbrellas were positioned intimately, close together and sometimes following the geometry of the rice fields. In the luxuriant vegetation enriched by water year round, the umbrellas were blue. In the California vastness of uncultivated grazing land, the configuration of the umbrellas was whimsical and spreading in every direction. The brown hills in California were covered by blond grass, and, in that dry landscape, the umbrellas were yellow.

The Umbrellas, Japan - USA
1984-1991
(Ibaraki, Japan Site)
90 blue umbrellas were in the Sato River.
Foto: Wolfgang Volz

It has often been suggested with the history of the Medicis in mind, or William Golding's novel The Spire that the creation of great art is inseparable from death or sacrifice. It would be tactless to suggest that the two tragic accidents that took a life at each site fitted into this pattern; the Christos shared the widespread distress. But the joy was widespread too: The Umbrellas, JapanUSA were a presence of simple grace and startling beauty and, incidentally, a reminder that there was far more to the Christos' art than the wrapping they had become so closely associated with. The Valley Curtain (1970-1972), Running Fence (1972-1976), Surrounded Islands (1980-1983) and The Umbrellas, JapanUSA were a new departure that took them into resplendent realms far beyond wrapping.