Wrapped Walk Ways, Jacob Loose Park, Kansas City, Missouri 1977-1978
Kansas City, MO. –The Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation has generously given The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City an exhibition consisting of original artworks and related archival material tied to the 1978 Wrapped Walk Ways project, which vividly transformed Jacob L. Loose Memorial Park. Roughly two- and-a-half miles of park pathways were wrapped in yellow nylon fabric by Bulgarian-born Christo (1935-2020) and his partner Jeanne-Claude (1935-2009), revolutionizing the way visitors viewed the park.
“While this project lasted a handful of days, it had a permanent impact on those who experienced it,” said Julián Zugazagoitia, Director & CEO of the Nelson-Atkins. “Visitors were compelled to experience what art meant to them and should mean to others. It also united a devoted group of disparate community members who passionately contributed to this display.”
The Foundation’s gift includes 18 major works by Christo as well as 35 photographs by Wolfgang Volz, permits, correspondence, engineering plans, a documentary film reel, and original components that trace the history of this project.
“Although Christo and Jeanne-Claude conceived their monumental Wrapped Walk Ways project as temporary, its legacy lives on through this generous gift,” said Stephanie Fox Knappe, Sanders Sosland Senior Curator, Global Modern and Contemporary Art and Head, American Art.
“Not only does it commemorate an unexpected and engaging temporary intervention in one of our city’s most beautiful parks that helped put Kansas City on the contemporary art world map in 1978, but it also celebrates the lasting friendships between the artists and those who collaborated with them—some of whom are now core supporters of the Nelson-Atkins.”
Leading up to the 50th-anniversary project, the museum will mount a small preview exhibition opening June 28 through January 18, 2026, highlighting selections from the Foundation’s gift with a call to community members to share their memories of experiencing Wrapped Walk Ways.
This gift considerably amplifies the museum’s small holdings of work related to Wrapped Walk Ways, which includes a two-part drawing by Christo, a collage made of a gelatin silver print photograph of Loose Park pre- Wrapped Walk Ways by Wolfgang Volz on top of which Christo drew a saffron path, and two chromogenic prints by Volz that document what visitors to the park experienced when they encountered the installation.
This generous acquisition will allow the Nelson-Atkins to celebrate the 50th anniversary of this significant public art project undertaken by an influential and internationally renowned couple of contemporary artists fewer than two miles south of the museum.
Known for their monumental environmental projects such as Running Fence in Northern California and Valley Curtain in Rifle, Colorado, Christo and Jeanne-Claude considered social interactions to be integral aspects of their self-funded projects that were often years in the making. Each of their undertakings depended on the participation of lawyers, ecologists, community leaders, and paid laborers in order to be realized.
In Kansas City, Christo gathered a number of volunteers who helped realize the project, including John and Sharon Hoffman, who were instrumental in obtaining this generous gift from the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation. The project ignited interest in contemporary art not only in this region but across the country. With this preview exhibition, the museum will capture memories of those who participated in the project to utilize for the 50th anniversary, which will celebrate the legacy of the Christos as they continue to inspire generations of artists.
Image credits: Christo, Wrapped Walk Ways (Project for Jacob L. Loose Memorial Park, Kansas City, Missouri), 1978. Graphite, charcoal, pastel, wax crayon, and map on paper. 38 x 91.5 cm and 152.5 x 91.5 cm (15 x 36 in and 60 x 36 in). Gift of the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation, 2024.68.1.1,2. Photo: Eeva-Inkeri © Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation
Christo and Jeanne-Claude directing work at the Wrapped Walk Ways project. Kansas City, 1978. Photo: Wolfgang Volz © Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation
Christo and Jeanne-Claude
Christo and Jeanne-Claude were born on the same day: June 13,1935; he in Gabrovo, Bulgaria, and she in Casablanca, Morocco. Jeanne-Claude passed away in 2009, and Christo died in 2020, both in New York City, where they had moved in 1964. Christo and Jeanne-Claude realized monumental projects around the world, including Wrapped Coast, One Million Square Feet, Little Bay, Sydney, 1968-69; Running Fence, Sonoma and Marin Counties, California, 1972-76; Surrounded Islands, Biscayne Bay, Greater Miami, Florida, 1980-83; The Pont Neuf Wrapped, Paris, 1975-85; The Umbrellas, Japan- USA, 1984-91; Wrapped Reichstag, Berlin, 1971-95; The Gates, Central Park, New York City, 1979-2005; The Floating Piers, Lake Iseo, Italy, 2014-16; The London Mastaba, Serpentine Lake, Hyde Park, 2016-18; and L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped, Paris, 1961-2021.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude worked together since their first outdoor temporary work of art: Stacked Oil Barrels and Dockside Packages, Cologne Harbor, Germany, 1961. Before he escaped to the West, Christo studied painting, sculpture, architecture, and decorative arts at the National Academy of Art in Sofia for four years. All early works, such as Wrapped Cans, Wrapped Oil Barrels, Packages, Wrapped Objects, and Store Fronts, as well as all preparatory drawings, collages, and scale models are works by Christo only. All public projects and indoor installations, both realized and unrealized, are collaborative works by Christo and Jeanne-Claude.
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