Shared Home, Shared Studio

Edward Kienholz, known for his gritty assemblages, and Christo, known for his grand public works that are interventions on prestigious institutions and large landmasses, are artists typically not considered together. However, they do share one thing in common—spouses who collaborated on their artistic projects and were retrospectively credited for their contributions. Edward Kienholz established himself in the Los Angeles art scene during the sixties as a co-founder of the Ferus Gallery associated with artists such as Larry Bell, Robert Irwin, and John Altoon. Less than a decade later, in 1972, he met photojournalist Nancy Reddin. The two were married and collaborated on works signed only by Edward Keinholz. Starting in 1979, the two began cosigning their works. In 1981 Keinholz officially announced in a catalogue for the exhibition The Kienholz Women that all works created since 1972 should be equally credited to Nancy Reddin Kienholz. The Hood’s Econo-Can dates to the year Nancy Reddin Kienholz was retrospectively credited for her work. Reddin Keinholz’s photojournalism background sparked a heavier use of photographs in the couple’s work and she was probably influential in the creation of works that address women’s rights issues. 

Christo Javacheff went to art school from 1953 to 1956 before dropping out and eventually finding his way to Paris as a Bulgarian refugee. In 1958 Christo met Jeanne-Claude. They began to collaborate on artworks in the 1960s, signing their works only as Christo “to avoid confusing dealers and the public, and to establish an artistic brand.” In 1994, after their artistic practice had been well established, they began signing their works as Christo and Jeanne-Claude, intentional about the ordering of the names so that Christo is always placed before Jeanne-Claude. This work in the Hood’s collection is a preparatory drawing in graphite, charcoal, and pastel, made in two parts, with engineering data and a map adhered together with masking tape for their 1976 installation Running Fence. Though Christo is solely responsible for the preparatory drawings behind their works, Jeanne-Claude and Christo were equal collaborators in the conceptualization and execution of their artworks. In fact, Jeanne-Claude came up with the idea for one of their most well-known works, Surrounded Islands, herself. Of course—with the other notable exception of the Kienholzes—the wife is most often forgotten and uncredited in discussions of couples’ jointly produced works. Overlooking the legacies of women who contribute to artistic practices dates back to medieval times, when wives helped run their husbands’ artist’s workshops, sometimes even taking full control after their husbands died.

References:

William Grimes, “Jeanne-Claude, Christo’s Collaborator on Environmental Canvas, Is Dead at 74,” New York Times, November 19, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/20/arts/design/20jeanne-claude.html