For over 50 years, Christo and Jeanne-Claude—his partner in life and work—created venturous, transitory projects ranging from swaddled architecture to sprawling environmental interventions. In 1991, they orchestrated The Umbrellas: 1,760 golden yellow umbrellas installed throughout the Tejon Ranch on an 18 mile expanse of grassy hills bordering Interstate 5 between Gorman and the Grapevine. The Umbrellas project, privately funded at a cost of $26 million, remained in place for just 18 days and was viewed by approximately 3 million people. Many of Christo and Jean-Claude’s audacious projects were fraught with obstacles and remarkably ephemeral: years in the planning, the realized works might only exist for weeks. A compelling record of their work, process, and relationships, however, exists in six films made by David and Albert Maysles. Indisputable mavens of direct cinema, the Maysles brothers were openly tuned to both the drama and the humanity. As Albert Maysles solicitously observed, “We each create art within the limitation of reality.” 

image courtesy  Los Angeles Times

http://mayslesfilms.com/film/umbrellas

https://christojeanneclaude.net