Jeanne-Claude and Christo's yellow umbrellas

Jeanne-Claude and Christo’s yellow umbrellas

Nov. 19, 2009 11:19 AM PT

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Back in the fall of 1991, the hillsides on both sides of Interstate 5 through the Tejon Pass were dotted with yellow umbrellas. The huge nylon canopies were part of a joint installation with another exhibit featuring blue umbrellas in Japan, both conceived by the artist Christo and his wife, Jeanne-Claude, who died Wednesday in New York after a brain aneurysm. She was 74.

Unfortunately, on Oct. 26, 1991, sudden high winds caused one of the 485-pound yellow umbrellas to blow over and fall on Lori Keevil-Mathews of Camarillo, killing her. The artists ordered the installation dismantled after the accident.

Thousands of people flocked to the Tejon Pass to see the umbrellas. Were you one of them? What did you think of them?

Update: Click here to see more photos of the artists and their work.

-- Claire Noland

Afterword

Claire Noland

Claire Noland, who joined the Los Angeles Times in 1994, became editor of curated email newsletters in spring 2015. She had been in the Obituary Department since 2006, the last six years as editor. Before that, she was an editor in Sports. A California native and graduate of Mount St. Mary’s College in Los Angeles, she worked at the Antelope Valley Press, Los Angeles Daily News and Minneapolis Star Tribune. She left The Times in December 2015.