Fifty years ago, Don Dickenson left a voicemail for California’s attorney general. Then he climbed into his car and drove toward the sea. If what he had heard was true, he had precious little time to save one of the most ambitious artworks in California’s history.
The artwork in question was “Running Fence,” a 24-mile installation by artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude that wound through Sonoma and Marin counties, weaving across their rolling hills before dropping into the Pacific Ocean. In appearance, it was closer to a curtain than a fence, a series of 18-foot-high nylon sheets suspended between 2,050 steel poles. In its finished form, “Running Fence” looked like a white ribbon laid across the landscape, flapping lazily in the wind.
The piece stayed up for only two weeks, but it was the culmination of a four-year effort, during which time the artists chased down permits, attended public meetings, rubbed elbows with ranchers and battled local opposition. The artwork had required a 265-page environmental impact report, 300 workers, and more than $2 million in funds to construct. In the process, the artists fielded both a bomb threat and vandalism from disgruntled neighbors.
Through it all, “Running Fence” had prevailed. But just as it was set to be completed, it ran into a crisis that almost derailed the whole project. For the first time, the artists appeared to have violated the law. They had extended their fence into the Pacific Ocean without the approval of the California Coastal Commission…