The Mastaba - 1240 Oil Barrels (Project for the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia), 1998

Christo's edition The Mastaba - 1240 Oil Barrels depicts a proposal for one of his monumental, site-specific installations. The work envisions a mastaba – a monumental form derived from ancient Mesopotamian and Egyptian architecture – constructed from stacked oil barrels, a material that became synonymous with Christo's artistic practice. Combining architectural precision with sculptural ambition, the project reflects Christo's enduring fascination with scale, transformation, and the relationship between art, landscape, and the built environment. The drawing belongs to Christo and Jeanne-Claude's long-running exploration of The Mastaba, a monumental barrel sculpture for Abu Dhabi that remains their final unrealised large-scale public project and continues to be prepared for future construction.