Play, art or theatre? From whatever point of view you look at it, the work of Christo and his wife Jeanne-Claude conjures up grandiose images – from the wrapping of the Reichstag in Berlin to the thousands of golden yellow umbrellas in the Californian hills, the screen hung on the Arkansas river, and the packaging of the Pont Neuf in Paris.

In their work nothing is left to chance and nothing is as simple as it seems – the wrapping of the Reichstag for example required 24 years of preparation, just as important as the final result. So a look behind the scenes is just as much a spectacle as that which is staged each time. With this in mind, an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego (until 3 November) aims to illustrate step by step each stage of the work, covering the bureaucratic aspects and fund raising, sketches, photographs, collages and preparatory drawings, structural calculations and feasibility studies which lead to the realisation of the bolder works.

The exhibition, which comes from Washington, covers forty years of work by the Christos, with a collection put together by Dorothy and Herbert Vogel. Alongside the exhibition in San Diego is a collection by David Copley which has been promised as a donation to the museum.

until 3.11.2002
Christo and Jeanne-Claude in the Vogel Collection
Museum of Contemporary Art
700 Prospect St., La Jolla, San Diego
T +1-858-4543541