Lot 15 D

The publications by Lawrence Alloway and David Bourdon are enclosed with the sculpture.

At the end of the 1950’s, Christo began his iconic concealments that will define his entire artistic œuvre. Tables laden with wrapped objects pertain to his first works, including our work. ‘Package on a Table’ is thus one of the most significant, pioneering pieces of his early works. It comes from an exceptional provenance: John Trouillard and his wife Jacqueline ran the avant-garde gallery Ad Libitum in Antwerp from 1958 to 1972. With passion and a special instinct for artistic quality, the couple was doing pioneering work promoting artists such as Lucio Fontana, Niki de Saint-Phalle, Jean Tinguely, and Arman. The young Christo, who had only just started his career, was also supported by the Trouillards. In 1964, the gallery organised its first exhibition for the artist in Belgium where ‘Package on a Table’ was also shown. After the end of the exhibition, the work became the property of the gallery owners.
In ‘Package on a Table’, the table and the objects are combined into an inseparable unit through the act of wrapping. While the piece of furniture remains recognisable in parts, the objects piled on top of it are entirely concealed. Their multi-levelled structure and the numerous nooks and edges form the basis for an organic landscape shaped by folds of fabric and complex lacings. Simultaneously, a conscious failure of the table’s function takes place – the table, built to be a piece of furniture, is relieved of its original task, the use as a table is permanently prevented, as is also the case with the wrapped bicycles, traffic signs or armchairs created by Christo shortly after.
The particularity of Christo’s concealments lies in the autonomy of the wrapped objects – they stay anonymous and hidden and are relevant in their spatial presence without conveying any subtle messages. This contrasts with early surrealistic concealments that are sometimes viewed as forerunners of Christo’s works. In contrast to these, Christo was more interested in surfaces and outer appearance. He explored the geometry of objects with the aim to deliberately change and obscure them through the wrapping. The fabrics, films or tarpaulins used for wrapping create different, new geometric shapes and surfaces – turning these into the decisive element rather than the mystification of the content.
‘Here, too, the questions of content, utility and purpose are posed, but the obscurity of the interior forms renders them unanswerable and deflects our attention to the extremely subtle geometry of surfaces, the relations of area, volume and line.’ (Stephen S. Prokopoff, cited from: Matthias Koddenberg, Christo and Jean-Claude. Frühe Werke 1958-64, Bönen 2009, p. 87).