Christo / Ocean Front (Bay Cover - Project for Covering the Cove at King's Beach, New Port, Rhode Island) / Collage 1974 / 22 x 28" (56 x 71 cm) / Fabric, pencil, charcoal, crayon and cardboard / Private collection / Photo: Archive / © 1974 Christo / https://christojeanneclaude.net/mobile/projects?p=ocean-front
As part of the 1974 citywide exhibit of modern sculpture in Newport known as Monumenta, Christo and Jeanne-Claude wrapped King’s Beach on Ocean Drive. It consisted of 150,000 square feet of white polypropylene fabric attached to the shoreline. It was called “Oceanfront Project” and lasted only eight days.
All photos below I took while being part of a crew assisting Christo and Jeanne Claude in stretching the fabric over the cove at King's beach, in 1974, August 19, starting at 6.00 AM. I was using a Leica III g and Ilford film. These shots I kept in my Paterson Negative Files 35 mm for all these years. Never seen, never shawn. Today, in 2020, I decide to digital publish them as a tribute to Christo and remembrance of a fine day well spent in the making of contemporary art. At the date of Christo's death, I honor him for having been one of the few persons introducing me to the fantastic world of art of our time. www.georgespaumier.com.
Ocean Front
Newport, Rhode Island. 1974
Width: 420 feet (128 meters) Length: 320 feet (97.5 meters
For a period of 18 days, 150,000 square feet (13,935 square meters) of white woven polypropylene floating fabric covered the surface of the water of a half-moon-shaped cove at King's Beach in Newport, Rhode Island. The cove is located on the southern exposure of Ocean Drive, facing the portion of Long Island Sound that meets the Atlantic. Ocean Front, a temporary work of art, was financed by Christo and Jeanne-Claude through the sale of preparatory studies created by Christo: drawings, collages and scale models, as well as early works of the fifties and sixties and original lithographs. The artists do not accept sponsorship of any kind.
Unipolycon engineers Dimiter (Mitko) Zagoroff and James Fuller designed the project and supervised its construction. The project was coordinated by William and Gail Crimmins.
Work began at 6:00 am on Monday, August 19, 1974. The bundled fabric was passed from the truck to pairs of non-skilled workers wearing life jackets. They carried the 6,000 pound (2,721 kg) load of fabric to the water on two-by-fours stretched between them.
The fabric was laced to a 420 foot (128 meter) long wooden boom secured with twelve Danforth anchors, holding in place the frontal edge of the floating fabric. 42 rebar stakes were driven into the shoreline rocks to secure the inland edges of the fabric that extended to the beach and rocks. The installation was completed in eight hours. The work of art remained for eight days.
Credits:
Photos Georges Paumier. 1974, August 19.