Gagosian gallery in London will present an artwork conceived by Christo and Jeanne-Claude in 1968 but never realized before the artists』 deaths—Jeanne-Claude in 2009 and Christo in 2020.
The exhibition 「Christo: Air,」 opening May 21 and running through August 21, will feature rare works by Christo as well as Air Package on a Ceiling, a work that Christo and Jeanne-Claude planned for the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia but never mounted due to technical limitations. Described in the gallery』s press release for the exhibition as a 「vast, internally illuminated and suspended form,」 the work will measure around 32 by 52 feet and hangs just over the heads of viewers in the gallery.
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In a story about the show in the Guardian, Lorenza Giovanelli, who started working as Christo』s studio manager in 2017, said, 「It will look like a beautiful cloud, lit from within, hanging from the ceiling of the gallery space … It will be very magical … I』ve imagined this many times. So I am really impatient to see it.」 She added: 「I believe people will really find it extremely beautiful.」
It was Giovanelli who found the original plans for Air Package on a Ceiling in 2018, just two years before Christo』s death at the age of 84. A detail scale model showed the work 「mocked up in a gallery maquette complete with electrical wiring to convey the work』s lighting elements.」
Other works in the Gagosian show will include Wrapped Automobile—Volvo, Model PV-544 (1981), a car wrapped in the manner that made Christo famous that has not been shown in 30 years.