Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Wrapped Box, 1966

Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Wrapped Box, 1966

Cardboard box wrapped in brown kraft paper and tied with sisal twine, with paper mailing label and postage affixed

Edition 64/100

In 1966, while Christo was a visiting artist at the Minneapolis School of Art (now Minneapolis College of Art and Design), he, his wife Jeanne-Claude, and student assistants created "14,130 Cubic Feet Empaquetage" (also known as "Balloon Ascension") on the school's lawn. It was a large inflated parcel, 32 by 64 feet, made from giant research balloons filled with 2,804 colored balloons, all wrapped in plastic and bound with 3,200 feet of manila rope. A helicopter raised it 20 feet above the ground and hovered for half an hour. To finance this 1960s performance piece, Christo and the students wrapped 100 cardboard boxes - including the present one - in brown Kraft paper bound with twine and sent them to subscribing members of the Walker Art Center’s Contemporary Arts Group. For those unwise members who opened their boxes (and many did), inside they would have found a serially numbered card telling them that they had just destroyed a work of art. In fact, not too many of these boxes are extant today, exactly because many of the original, and in fact later recipients couldn't resist opening their boxes and hence destroying the work of art.
Other than the editions that are already in institutional collections -- not too many of these works are out there and on the market. Scarce.
The present work is affixed with the original Walker Art Center label along the lower front side that reads \"Walker Art Center. 1710 Lyndale Avenue South Minneapolis, Minn. 55403. 64/100. Return Requested.\" and \"48 Howard Street New York City, N.Y. 966-4437. Miss Margaret E. Morris 2429 - 3rd Avenue South Minneapolis, Minnesota.\" Additional label affixed along the upper right front of the package that reads: \"Eight Sculptors: The Ambiguous Image. Oct. 22 to Dec. 4.\" This work was part of an edition of 100 created for the Walker Art Center\'s 1966 exhibition \"Eight Sculptors: The Ambiguous Image.\"

Tear to the brown paper wrapped around the box along one side; minor spotting above label otherwise good vintage condition (see photos)