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Home>Research>Library>Image Collections>Process and Participation in the Work of Christo and Jeanne-Claude>Valley Curtain

Introduction

Shunk-Kender Photography Collection

Early Works, Paris 1963-1964

Wrapped Museum of Contemporary Art / Wrapped Floor and Stairway 1968-1969

Wrapped Coast 1968-1969

Valley Curtain 1970-1972

# Valley Curtain: 1970–1972

Unfurling of curtain for *Valley Curtain, Rifle, Colorado, 1970–72,*August 10, 1972, gelatin silver print, Shunk-Kender Photography Collection, Department of Image Collections, National Gallery of Art Library, Gift of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation in memory of Harry Shunk and János Kender. © Christo. Photograph: Shunk-Kender © J. Paul Getty Trust. All Rights Reserved.

*Valley Curtain, Rifle, Colorado, 1970–72* was designed for the Grand Hogback ridge near Rifle, Colorado. A swath of 200,200 square feet of orange nylon polyamide fabric was suspended across Rifle Gap at a width of 1,250 feet, and a height from 365 feet at each end to 182 feet at the center. As with *Wrapped Coast*, Shunk-Kender were from the start an integral part of the project team, which included engineers, site supervisors, 35 construction workers, and 64 temporary staff (college students and itinerant art workers). Over a period of two years, they photographed the initial preparation and meetings associated with planning the project; the construction with a first curtain, which was destroyed by winds on October 9, 1971, just before it could be completed; and the fabrication and construction of a second, final curtain, which was successfully unfurled on August 10, 1972. The completed project existed for only twenty-eight hours before a gale required that it be dismantled.

Harry Shunk and János Kender ended their partnership in 1973; *Valley Curtain* was their last collaborative project. Shunk continued briefly to work with Christo and Jeanne-Claude and to document the work of other artists. He retained Shunk-Kender’s negatives and photographs until his death in 2006.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude*Valley Curtain, Rifle, Colorado, 1970–72*

View of Rifle Gap, in the Grand Hogback ridge, Rifle, Colorado. The land used for the project was leased from two private owners and the US government.

© Christo. Photograph: Shunk-Kender © J. Paul Getty Trust. All Rights Reserved.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude*Valley Curtain, Rifle, Colorado, 1970–72*

View of the completed project.

© Christo. Photograph: Shunk-Kender © J. Paul Getty Trust. All Rights Reserved.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude*Valley Curtain, Rifle, Colorado, 1970–72*

Christo, standing with drawing of *Valley Curtain*, at the press conference announcing the project, State Capitol, Denver, Colorado, February 18, 1971. 

© Christo. Photograph: Shunk-Kender © J. Paul Getty Trust. All Rights Reserved.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude*Valley Curtain, Rifle, Colorado, 1970–72*

Worker dyes the fabric for the project in a factory in Putnam, Connecticut.

© Christo. Photograph: Shunk-Kender © J. Paul Getty Trust. All Rights Reserved.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude*Valley Curtain, Rifle, Colorado, 1970–72*

Factory workers sew the curtain at Rubber Fabricators, Richwood, West Virginia; Christo stands at far right.

© Christo. Photograph: Shunk-Kender © J. Paul Getty Trust. All Rights Reserved.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude*Valley Curtain, Rifle, Colorado, 1970–72*

Construction workers excavate for one of the curtain’s anchors on the slopes of the gap.

© Christo. Photograph: Shunk-Kender © J. Paul Getty Trust. All Rights Reserved.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude*Valley Curtain, Rifle, Colorado, 1970–72*

Workers prepare to raise an eleven-ton steel plate to the main anchor on the west-side slope.

© Christo. Photograph: Shunk-Kender © J. Paul Getty Trust. All Rights Reserved.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude*Valley Curtain, Rifle, Colorado, 1970–72*

View across the valley from one of the slope anchors, with the four main project cables installed.

© Christo. Photograph: Shunk-Kender © J. Paul Getty Trust. All Rights Reserved.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude*Valley Curtain, Rifle, Colorado, 1970–72*

Project team attaches the curtain fabric to the steel pickup cable.

© Christo. Photograph: Shunk-Kender © J. Paul Getty Trust. All Rights Reserved.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude*Valley Curtain, Rifle, Colorado, 1970–72*

Christo (at left) and workers secure the fabric and its cable with knotted ropes designed to pull away and allow the fabric to unfurl once the wrapped cable was raised.

© Christo. Photograph: Shunk-Kender © J. Paul Getty Trust. All Rights Reserved.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude*Valley Curtain, Rifle, Colorado, 1970–72*

Curtain package left partially elevated when the crew finished for the day, October 9, 1971.  That evening, a gust of wind caused some of the knotted ropes on the curtain to come loose, unfurling fabric onto the ground.

© Christo. Photograph: Shunk-Kender © J. Paul Getty Trust. All Rights Reserved.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude*Valley Curtain, Rifle, Colorado, 1970–72*

View of the prematurely opened curtain.

© Christo. Photograph: Shunk-Kender © J. Paul Getty Trust. All Rights Reserved.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude*Valley Curtain, Rifle, Colorado, 1970–72*

Workers with the lowered cable and damaged fabric.

© Christo. Photograph: Shunk-Kender © J. Paul Getty Trust. All Rights Reserved.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude*Valley Curtain, Rifle, Colorado, 1970–72*

Crew at the project site unload a new curtain, redesigned to have an inner and outer cocoon to secure the fabric until it could be raised into place.

© Christo. Photograph: Shunk-Kender © J. Paul Getty Trust. All Rights Reserved.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude*Valley Curtain, Rifle, Colorado, 1970–72*

Jeanne-Claude and worker help to lift the curtain in its cocoon.

© Christo. Photograph: Shunk-Kender © J. Paul Getty Trust. All Rights Reserved.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude*Valley Curtain, Rifle, Colorado, 1970–72*

Ironworker Donald Jenkins stands on the curtain with other workers assisting in the cable car and on the slope, releasing the outer cocoon of the curtain package. 

© Christo. Photograph: Shunk-Kender © J. Paul Getty Trust. All Rights Reserved.

© Christo. Photograph: Shunk-Kender © J. Paul Getty Trust. All Rights Reserved.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude*Valley Curtain, Rifle, Colorado, 1970–72*

The project team unfurls and secures the curtain fabric.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude*Valley Curtain, Rifle, Colorado, 1970–72*

Unfurling of curtain.

© Christo. Photograph: Shunk-Kender © J. Paul Getty Trust. All Rights Reserved.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude*Valley Curtain, Rifle, Colorado, 1970–72*

Unfurling of curtain.

© Christo. Photograph: Shunk-Kender © J. Paul Getty Trust. All Rights Reserved.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude*Valley Curtain, Rifle, Colorado, 1970-72*

View of the completed project.

© Christo. Photograph: Shunk-Kender © J. Paul Getty Trust. All Rights Reserved.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude*Valley Curtain, Rifle, Colorado, 1970–72*

Christo and Jeanne-Claude with* Valley Curtain.*

© Christo. Photograph: Shunk-Kender © J. Paul Getty Trust. All Rights Reserved.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude*Valley Curtain, Rifle, Colorado, 1970–72*

Staff portrait in front of unfurled curtain.

© Christo. Photograph: Shunk-Kender © J. Paul Getty Trust. All Rights Reserved.

Click on a slide above to view a larger image and detailed description (22 images total)

Christo and Jeanne-Claude in the Vogel Collection

Artists' website

Roy Lichtenstein Foundation

Getty Research Institute

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