Christo Drawings: A Gift from the Maria Bechily and Scott Hodes Collection
On view August 19, 2022 – June 11, 2023
Pérez Art Museum Miami
Miami, Florida
www.pamm.org
Christo (born Christo Vladmirov Javacheff) and his wife and artistic collaborator Jeanne-Claude made an inestimable impact on the history of art since the mid-20th century. Together, they created large-scale, ephemeral, public art projects, involving dramatic interventions in carefully selected outdoor locations.
This exhibition presents stellar works gifted to PAMM by Christo’s longtime friends Maria Bechily and Scott Hodes. These are fine examples of Christo’s drawing practice, which constitutes a pivotal aspect of his production. Christo and Jeanne-Claude declined all financial support from governments, institutions, single patrons, and foundations, choosing to fund their massive projects through the direct sales of drawings such as these. These works memorialize the projects and represent an alternative to the traditional funding structures for art. Collectively, the drawings exemplify an expansive overview of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s oeuvre, comprising their major projects spanning from the late 1960s to the early 2000s.
[Image: Christo. The Wall, Project for 13,000 Oil Barrels Wall, Gasometer, Oberhausen, 1999. Collage. 11 x 14 inches. Pencil, enamel paint, photograph by Wolfgang Volz, wax crayon, technical data and tape, on brown cardboard. Collection Pérez Art Museum Miami, gift from the collection of Scott Hodes and Maria Bechily. Photo: Wolfgang Volz. © Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation.]
