“The project is built around the idea that the inner geometry or formal arrangement of these umbrellas is hidden in the potential of the sites.”

—Christo

At sunrise on 9 October 1991, 3,100 blue and yellow umbrellas were simultaneously opened in Japan and the USA. Christo and Jeanne-Claude originally conceived of The Umbrellas in 1984 as a project that would visually and conceptually link two inland valleys, one 12 miles long in the Prefecture of Ibaraki, Japan, and the other 18 miles long on the land of the Tejon Ranch, north of Los Angeles. Emblematic of the artists’ ambition, drive and vision, the project took seven years and countless negotiations with rice farmers in Japan, American rangers, as well as numerous state bodies to be brought to fruition. The actual process of creating the 3,100 umbrellas began in December 1990. Each various element was produced by 11 manufacturers in Japan, USA, Germany and Canada; these were then assembled in Bakersfield, California, with the 1,340 blue umbrellas subsequently shipped to Japan. The umbrellas remained in place for 18 days after which the land was restored to its original condition. As with all their monumental public projects, the entire cost of $26 million was borne by the artists through the sale of studies, preparatory drawings, lithographs and collages such as the present work.

The Umbrellas (Project for Japan and Western USA) exemplifies the meticulous planning and intricate understanding of colour, medium and environment that underpin Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s practice. The work comprises two parts that together contextualise the Japanese installation of the project. The upper part features a section of a topographic map which details the exact locations of each umbrella within the landscape. In the lower part, there is an illustration of the umbrellas in their prospective places, executed with graphite, charcoal, pastel, wax crayon and fabric collage. Whereas the corresponding illustration of the American installation highlighted the parched earth of the Californian landscape, here the vibrant blue of the umbrellas emphasises and is accentuated by the lush green vegetation that surrounds them. Their regular arrangement reflects and responds to the intricate, filigree-like environment of the rice fields in which they stood: ‘Everywhere that we visited in Japan we were confronted by the essence of Japanese space: all these people living on such a small area of land. And the space within the land is extremely regulated’.ⁱ Testament to the artists’ artistic sensibilities and aesthetic precision, the present composition is defined by a harmony that reflects the rhythm of the Ibaraki valley and the majesty of the realised final project.

When installed, the umbrellas revealed the earth anew, sketching contours, ridges and depressions, revisioning the landscape and our consciousness of it. This sensitivity to the environment sits at the heart of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s oeuvre, with their pioneering attention to landscape challenging public complacency towards their surroundings by inviting them to view, appreciate and find themselves there anew. Unlike traditional sculpture or installation, Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Umbrellas project was inherently participatory. It highlighted the balance between the natural and human worlds, making manifest the power of art to implicate the viewer and intertwine them within their environment.

i Christo Vladimirov Javacheff, quoted in Masahiko Yanagi, ‘Interview de Christo’, in Christo from Lilja Collection, exh. cat., Musée d'Art Moderne et d'Art Contemporain, Nice, 1989, p. 188