NEWPORT, RI.- The Newport Art Museum has acquired the work by Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s “Ocean Front, Newport, Rhode Island 1974. A Documentation Exhibition” collection. Donated by the Estates of Jeanne-Claude and Christo, this collection consists of original collages, drawings, and archival materials, as well as documentary photographs by Gianfranco Gorgoni, of the Ocean Front project for which the artists covered the surface of the water and rocks at Cove at King’s Beach in Newport with 150,000 square feet of white woven polypropylene fabric.

Ocean Front was on view for eighteen days as part of the landmark exhibition, “Monumenta”– a city-wide display of large-scale public and environmental art by contemporary artists. “Monumenta” featured works by many artistic luminaries, such as Alexander Calder, Willem de Kooning, Richard Fleischner, Robert Grosvenor, Anne Healey, Barbara Hepworth, Robert Indiana, Louise Nevelson, Barnett Newman, Claes Oldenberg, Lucas Samaras, David Smith among others.

“We are incredibly grateful to the Estates of Jeanne-Claude and Christo for this donation of work to the Museum as well as Calvin Tomkins and Dodie Kazanjian (Founding Director of Art&Newport), and longtime friend of the artists,” explained Chief Curator Dr. Francine Weiss. “Since Ocean Front was on view in Newport, it is especially meaningful to have the Ocean Front archive as part of the Newport Art Museum’s collection, where it will serve as an invaluable resource for exhibitions, programs, visitors and future generations of scholars, researchers, and curators. We are also thrilled to share this work with our visitors this summer in an exhibition curated by Art&Newport.

This summer, the Newport Art Museum will participate in a celebration of the 50th anniversary of “Monumenta” which will include an exhibition, curated by Art&Newport, about Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Ocean Front project on view to the public at the Museum from July 13 - December 29, 2024, with an exclusive preview at the Museum’s Summer Art Ball on the evening of July 12, 2024.