Hexton, in collaboration with the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation, will be launching a year-long program focused on the artists’ pioneering impact on environmental art while specifically celebrating the 50th anniversary of their 1972 Valley Curtain project in Rifle, Colorado.

Over a career that spanned five decades, Christo and Jeanne-Claude conceived and executed transformative outdoor installations that encouraged their viewers to feel, question, and often physically interact with the work they saw. With an artistic mission that offered “revelation through concealment,” they were legendary for their large-scale environmental projects such as “The Gates” in which they transformed New York’s Central Park and “Floating Piers”, a 1.9 mile long walkway across the water of Lake Iseo, Italy, among other feats. For their massive art projects, many of which took several years to complete, and included the carefully orchestrated convincing of government officials, judges, environmental groups and landowners, Christo and Jeanne-Claude never accepted grant funding, and always returned their projects’ spaces in pristine condition once the temporary exhibitions came to a close. They believed that the entire journey to completing each work, permits and government negotiations included, was just as much a part of the artistic process as the finished impact itself.

Many of the works selected for this show held significant personal value for the couple, and the very nature of their never being exposed to the public before also provides the unique opportunity to experience the pieces in even more vivid color (several of them have been exposed to little or no sunlight). In addition to the “Wrapped Objects”, which includes a wrapped flower bouquet that Christo once gifted Jeanne-Claude and kept in their private home until his death, the works presented will also be representative of “The Umbrellas: Project for USA and Japan,” “Over the River,” “The Gates Project,” “Floating Piers,” “Running Fence,” and “Valley Curtain”.

Bob Chase, owner of Hexton Gallery, explains: “Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s legacy in Colorado is incredibly meaningful to us as an Aspen gallery with deep roots in this community. Two major projects were conceived here, the Valley Curtain and Over The River, and Aspen sits almost directly between those two sites.” In celebration of the Valley Curtain’s 50th anniversary, the exhibition covers 6 of the most important environmental projects staged or proposed in America.

The exhibition, “Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Ephemeral Nature,” will open August 1st, 2022.

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