The London Mastaba

By Steven Baker

(Jo Dungey writes)  In June this year, London’s Hyde Park acquired a dramatic new feature.  The London Mastaba is a huge sculpture, temporarily installed to float on The Serpentine lake.

Several members of Urban Sketchers London have worked on location in Hyde Park to create works portraying the London Mastaba, which we show here.

By Andrea Deng

The sculpture is the work of Christo and Jeanne Claude, artists known for the creation of huge environmental installations.  These have involved wrapping famous buildings such as the Reichstag in Berlin, and the Pont Neuf in Paris.  They have also created huge interventions in landscape, including Running Fence in California, and Valley Curtain in the Rocky Mountains, Colorado, USA. 

By Lis Watkins

The London Mastaba is made from 7,506 horizontally stacked barrels painted in red, white, blue and mauve.  Historically, a mastaba was a type of flat-topped tomb built in ancient Egypt.  This form was used to create a huge installation which floats on The Serpentine lake.

By Jo Dungey

The nearby Serpentine Gallery is presenting an exhibition: Christo and Jeanne Claude: Barrels and The Mastaba 1958-2018.  The exhibition includes sculptures, drawings, collages, scale models and photographs from the last sixty years of the two artists’ work.

From the exhibition

The exhibition runs until 9 September 2018 and the London Mastaba is installed until 23 September 2018.  Reflections glittering in the Serpentine waters, the London Mastaba is a symbol of London's long, hot summer.  See it if you can.

The London Mastaba