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Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Remembering the Running Fence

In 2008, the Smithsonian American Art Museum acquired the definitive record of Running Fence, Sonoma and Marin Counties, California, 1972-76, a major early work by world-renowned artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Running Fence, the culmination of 42 months of collaborative efforts, was 24 1/2 miles long and 18 feet high, with one end dropping down to the Pacific Ocean. This monumental temporary artwork was made of 240,000 square yards of heavy woven white nylon fabric, 90 miles of steel cable, 2,050 steel poles, 350,000 hooks, and 13,000 earth anchors. Paid for entirely by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, the completed Running Fence existed for only two weeks in September of 1976.

The exhibition presents the majority of individual items— more than 350 objects—from the collective archive of artworks and related materials. There are 46 original preparatory drawings and collages by Christo on display, including eight masterful, large-scale drawings, each 8 feet wide, and a 58-foot-long scale model. More than 240 photographs by Wolfgang Volz, Gianfranco Gorgoni and Harry Shunk reveal the complex process of constructing the Running Fence and the many personalities involved with the project. A sequence of 22-foot-wide high-definition images of Running Fence are projected at the exhibition entrance to convey to visitors the breadth and scale of the completed project. The exhibition also includes components from the actual project, including a nylon fabric panel and steel pole that visitors can touch.

Visitors to the exhibition can watch three films—The "Running Fence" Revisited, Running Fence, and Running Fence with Commentary—shown daily in a special screening room in the exhibition galleries. The "Running Fence" Revisited, co-produced by the museum and Wolfram Hissen from estWest films, is a new film that recaptures the excitement that still vividly lives in the memories of the people who saw the Running Fence, 34 years ago. Running Fence (1978), a film by the legendary American filmmakers Albert and David Maysles with Charlotte Zwerin, chronicles the unpredictable and ever-changing path that led to the completion of Running Fence. Janet Maslin, writing in the New York Times, described the film Running Fence as "the next best thing to having been there."

The story of Running Fence is not only a story of the inexhaustible perseverance of two artists over nearly insurmountable odds to create a temporary artwork of joy and beauty, but also the story of the people, places, and events that would become what is known as Running Fence, Sonoma and Marin Counties, California, 1972-76. This exhibition, organized by George Gurney, deputy chief curator, tells us that story.

Admission is free.