Christo

At a glance

Source: Wikipedia: Christo and Jeanne-Claude¹

Life and career

Christo Vladimirov Javacheff was born in Gabrovo, Bulgaria, on 13 June 1935. He studied at the Sofia Academy of Fine Arts, then left Bulgaria for Vienna, where he attended the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. In 1958, he began wrapping objects, an approach that became a defining part of his work.¹

Christo met Jeanne-Claude in Paris in October 1958. They developed projects together, with Christo making preparatory drawings and models that they sold to finance installations. The pair moved to New York City in 1964. They first presented large-scale outdoor works under Christo’s name, later crediting them to both artists.¹

Major projects

Their projects included Running Fence, a 24.5-mile nylon fence across California that was displayed for two weeks in 1976, and Wrapped Reichstag, completed in Berlin in 1995. In 1985, they wrapped the Pont Neuf in Paris. The installation attracted three million visitors and remained in place for two weeks.¹

In 2005, The Gates placed 7,503 fabric gates along paths in New York City’s Central Park. Christo later created projects without Jeanne-Claude, including Big Air Package in Germany in 2013 and The Floating Piers in Italy in 2016. L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped was completed in Paris in 2021, after his death.¹

Working approach

The installations often required years of preparation, including technical planning, negotiations, permits, environmental reviews and public hearings. The artists declined grants, donations and public funding. They financed their projects by selling Christo’s preparatory works and documentation.¹

Christo and Jeanne-Claude said that the planning and construction were integral to each artwork. They described their aim as creating works of joy and beauty, with no meaning beyond their immediate aesthetic impact. Many installations were temporary: after the public display, the artists removed them and the materials were often taken apart.¹