Modern & Samtida konst + Design
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To be sold at our Important Sale: Modern & Contemporary Art + Design 10 – 12 May 2023
Lot 466 Christo ”The Mastaba (Project for United Arab Emirates)”. Signed and dated Christo 2008 lower right of the upper element. Pencil, charcoal, wax crayon, pastel, technical drawing, enamel paint, map and tape on paper. Upper element: 38 x 165 cm. Lower element: 107 x 165 cm.
2.000.000 – 3.000.000 SEK
€ 177.000 – 266.000
Art dealer Carl Flach, acquired directly from the artist in 2008.
A Swedish private collection.
The concept of The Mastaba in Abu Dhabi was first envisioned by the artist duo Christo and Jeanne-Claude in 1977, but the project has not yet been realised. Jeanne-Claude passed away in 2009 and Christo in 2020 but as per their wishes, the work to realise the project has continued. The Mastaba will be Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s final project and also their only permanent, large-scale public artwork. It will be carried out by Christo’s nephew Vladimir Yavachev, who worked with the artists for over three decades and most recently directed “L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped” in Paris. When finalised, The Mastaba will be the largest contemporary sculpture in the world. The sale presents the preparatory drawing ”The Mastaba (Project for United Arab Emirates)” in two parts from 2008.
Even though the project was conceived already in 1977, it was not until 1979 that the artists visited Abu Dhabi for the first time and decided upon the colours and the positioning of the steel barrels. 440.000 multicoloured barrels will be used to build the mastaba, forming a mosaic of shimmering colours, which echoes Islamic architecture. Arranged on their sides, the brightly coloured lids will create a magical pattern along the vertical sides of the mastaba. The choice of colours and reference to Islamic culture also relates to the fact that the mastabas were funerary structures in Egypt and used to entomb the kings of the first two dynasties. Christo and Jeanne-Claude returned to The Emirates many times after their first visit and they developed a strong friendship with the people of Abu Dhabi. The Mastaba was a very accomplished preparatory project, which over the years evolved but from the grounds of the same vision as Christo and Jeanne-Claude had established in 1977.
Thirty years after the artists’ first visit to Abu Dhabi, they contracted professors of engineering from four different universities; ETH Zürich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, Cambridge University, UK and Hosei University in Tokyo. All four teams were asked to prepare structural feasibility studies about The Mastaba, and worked independently without knowing about each other. Christo and Jeanne-Claude hired Schlaich Bergermann Partner, a German engineering firm to analyse the reports. They concluded that the Hosei University presented the best proposal, with a construction period of at least three years after the government approval is granted. Two smaller versions of the project have already been realised by the artist duo; at the Maeght Foundation in the Giacometti Courtyard in 2016 and on the lake in London’s Hyde Park in 2018. These two projects, which can be viewed as stages along the path towards the monumental sculpture project, reveals the big dreams and visions that Christo and Jeanne-Claude shared together. The Mastaba in the United Arab Emirates will be 150 meters high, 300 long and 225 meters wide, making it almost 400 times bigger than the version at the Maeght Foundation.
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 visualising the project not only the everlasting part of their projects but also the base of their artistry. Through the drawings, we get a deeper understanding of the underlaying vision of the projects, and they conserve a part of the monumental sculptures. In Christo’s own words: “the collector is not just buying a drawing, for he also knows that the process of execution is part of the work” (A.-F. Penders, Conversation avec Christo et Jeanne-Claude, 2002). ■