"We tell them that we believe it will be beautiful because that is our specialty, we only create joy and beauty. We have never done a sad work. Through the drawings, we hope a majority will be able to visualize it"
About this Quote
The line “we only create joy and beauty” performs a strategic narrowing. Christo’s monumental interventions often arrived wrapped in bureaucracy, controversy, and civic negotiation; this vow of perpetual delight reframes those tensions as irrelevant to the final experience. “We have never done a sad work” is less a claim about emotion than a brand guarantee. It preempts critique that his temporary wrappings and environmental scale might carry political or ecological costs. Beauty becomes the moral high ground: the work is, by definition, harmless because it’s uplifting.
Then he pivots to the mechanics of persuasion. “Through the drawings” points to the real battlefield: not the finished installation, but the pre-approval phase where imagination needs scaffolding. Christo knew that public art at his scale is approved long before it is seen. The drawings aren’t merely preparatory; they’re diplomatic documents, engineered to help “a majority” picture themselves enjoying the outcome. It’s participatory rhetoric with a majoritarian edge: visualize it, accept it, make it yours. In Christo’s world, the artwork begins as a campaign for consent.
Quote Details
| Topic | Art |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Christo. (2026, January 17). We tell them that we believe it will be beautiful because that is our specialty, we only create joy and beauty. We have never done a sad work. Through the drawings, we hope a majority will be able to visualize it. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-tell-them-that-we-believe-it-will-be-beautiful-51048/
Chicago Style
Christo. "We tell them that we believe it will be beautiful because that is our specialty, we only create joy and beauty. We have never done a sad work. Through the drawings, we hope a majority will be able to visualize it." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-tell-them-that-we-believe-it-will-be-beautiful-51048/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"We tell them that we believe it will be beautiful because that is our specialty, we only create joy and beauty. We have never done a sad work. Through the drawings, we hope a majority will be able to visualize it." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-tell-them-that-we-believe-it-will-be-beautiful-51048/. Accessed 19 Feb. 2026.






