Point Reyes Light - September 14, 2000
Tomales History Center hosts talk about fishy artist
Freestone resident Tom Golden, who in 1976 worked with Christo Javacheff on the conceptual artist's 24-mile-long "running fence," will address the Tomales Regional History Center at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 18.
The partly illegal, 18-foot-high curtain (dubbed a fence) ran from Cotati to the ocean west of Valley Ford. Golden's lecture on the fence will be free and open to the public.
Although the curtain was taken down after 14 days, Golden later worked on Javacheff's other outdoor-art projects.
In his lecture, Golden will describe Javacheff's four years of negotiations with ranchers and county governments to get permission to erect the fence.
At the time, Javacheff claimed that going through the permit process was part of creating his conceptual art, but the claim was not altogether honest.
Defied coastal agency When the North Central Regional Coastal Commission raised environmental concerns about sinking one end of the fence in the Pacific, Javacheff thumbed his nose at the environmental agency. Rather than complete the Regional Coastal Commission's permit process, Javacheff opted to break the law in order to save time and money.
In response, the State Attorney General's office asked for an injunction against Javacheff, and Marin Superior Court Judge David Menary threatened to fine the artist $10,500 for every day the fence was in the ocean.
The issue was scheduled to be heard by the full California Coastal Commission the day before the fence was taken down, so the state let the curtain drop with at most a minimal fine, recalled his former attorney, Paul Kayfetz of Bolinas, this week.
Tried to stiff his lawyer However, Kayfetz dropped Javacheff as a client "when he went illegally at the last minute into the ocean."
Noting their promise to the Regional Commission, Kayfetz told him, "I represented that you weren't going to go illegal."
The Bulgarian-born artist, however, still owed Kayfetz for a year and a half of legal fees, which he refused to pay (at his wife's suggestion), accusing the attorney of disloyalty, the attorney said.
Kayfetz responded by immediately filing a lawsuit against Javacheff and got Judge Cecil Poole to attach all of the artists' construction equipment that was still in California.
It took six months of legal wrangling, but Javacheff ultimately paid all of Kayfetz's legal fees plus interest and the fees of Kayfetz's own lawyer.
Surprisingly, the attorney added, he and Javacheff later reestablished their friendship, and Javacheff dismissed the fee dispute as yet another part of the creative process.
Reaction to running fence From Kayfetz's point of view, the "running fence" was worthy art not only for its appearance but "because it got people talking."
In the Valley Ford and West Marin, reaction to the 24-mile curtain was mixed. Ranchers, who got to keep all the fabric that crossed their land, generally liked the project. So did the avant-garde art community.
On the other hand, a couple of academics in Marshall and Dillon Beach thought the "running fence" was stupid and took out advertising that questioned the need to lure more tourists to the coast.