{"data":{"id":"472","type":"artwork","attributes":{"id":472,"topgoose_id":15634,"portfolio_id":null,"tms_id":472,"title":"Package on Hand Truck","display_artist_text":"Christo","display_date":"1973","accession_number":"74.74","dimensions":"Overall: 50 7/8 × 26 5/8 × 31 3/4 in. (129.2 × 67.6 × 80.6 cm)","medium":"Metal, tarpaulin, wood and rope","department":"collection","classification":"Sculpture","credit_line":"Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Albrecht Saalfield","is_virtual":false,"is_portfolio":false,"portfolio_tms_id":null,"portfolio":null,"edition":null,"publication_info":"","description":"\u003cp\u003eChristo, \u003cem\u003ePackage on Hand Truck\u003c/em\u003e, 1973. Metal, tarpaulin, wood and rope, overall: 50 7/8 × 26 5/8 × 31 3/4 in. (129.2 × 67.6 × 80.6 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Mr. and Mrs. Albrecht Saalfield 74.74. © Christo1981\u003c/p\u003e","object_label":"\u003cp\u003eChristo and his partner Jeanne-Claude are renowned for their wrapped buildings, bridges, and environmental surfaces. Since 1958, Christo has worked independently on a series entitled Wrapped Objects and Packages, which is intended to be shown indoors—including \u003ci\u003ePackage on Hand Truck\u003c/i\u003e. Unlike the large-scale public projects he produced with Jeanne-Claude, whose interiors are often known, if not visible, the nips and folds of the workmanlike brown canvas tied with ordinary household rope in \u003ci\u003ePackage on Hand Truck\u003c/i\u003e are carefully designed to suggest—but never specify—the contents within. Instead, Christo emphasizes the work’s poverty of means, signified by the tarpaulin and common rope as well as by the hand truck, which replaces the noble pedestal of traditional sculpture and insists on the mobility of the object. Our response to it strikes no political chord (as their public projects often do); instead, it sounds a personal note, asking the viewer to decide whether the hidden contents are playful, puzzling, or threatening.\u003c/p\u003e","ai_alt_text":"A metal hand truck carries a large brown canvas bundle tightly bound with rope.","alt_text":"A lumpy, rectangular package wrapped in brown tarp and rope and supported by an aged, wooden hand truck.","visual_description":null,"on_view":false,"created_at":"2017-08-30T17:27:33.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-02-06T12:01:09.322-05:00","images":[{"id":92032,"url":"https://whitneymedia.org/assets/artwork/472/74_74_vw1_cropped.jpg"}]},"relationships":{"artists":{"data":[{"id":"262","type":"artist"}]}}}}