Christo artist wiki

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Though they declined most honors and commissions, this accolade affirmed their impact on contemporary art’s evolving relationship with public space and political memory.

Little Known Facts

Christo and Jeanne-Claude refused all corporate sponsorships and government funding, financing their projects entirely through the sale of Christo’s original drawings, collages, and early works.

13,076 meters (42,900 feet ) of rope.
Duration: 14 days.

1991
The Umbrellas, Japan-USA, 1984-1991. 1,340 blue umbrellas in Ibaraki, Japan; 1,760 yellow umbrellas in California. (3-1/2 inch) diameter, 6.4 meters (21 feet long).
Duration: 14 days.

1977
The Mastaba, Project for United Arab Emirates.

1978
Wrapped Walk Ways, Loose Park, Kansas City, Missouri, 1977-1978. 12,000 square meters (15,000 square yards) of woven nylon fabric over 4.5 kilometers (2.8 miles of walkways.
Duration: 14 days.

1983
Surrounded Islands, Biscayne Bay, Greater Miami, Florida, 1980-1983. Pink woven polypropylene fabric floating around eleven islands: 585,000 square meters (6.5 million square feet).
Duration: 14 days.

1984
Wrapped Floors and Stairways and Covered Windows, Architecture Museum, Basel, Switzerland.

Duration: Two months.

1970
Wrapped Monuments, Milano: Monument to Vittorio Emanuele, Piazza del Duomo, Milano, Italy. Polyethylene and rope.
Duration: Two days.

Monument to Leonardo da Vinci, Piazza della Scala, Milano, Italy. Polyethylene and rope.
Duration: Seven days.

1971
Wrapped Floors, Covered Windows and Wrapped Walk Ways, Haus Lange, Krefeld, Germany. House painter's cotton drop cloths.
Duration: 30 days.

1972
Valley Curtain, Grand Hogback, Rifle, Colorado.

In the 1960s, Christo started wrapping naked women in paper and rope. Depth: 1. House painter's cotton drop cloth on the floor and stairs and brown wrapping paper on the glass of the windows.
Duration: 3 months.

Wrapped Reichstag, Berlin, 1971-1995. 100,000 square meters (1,076,000 square feet) of polypropylene fabric. Width: 68 meters (223 feet).

Manila rope: 914 meters (3,000 feet)
Duration: Three days.

1968
Wrapped Fountain and Wrapped Medieval Tower, Spoleto, Italy. Polyethylene and ropes.
Duration: 3 weeks.

Wrapping of a Public Building, Wrapped Junsthalle Berne 1967-1968. Fabric: 2,430 square meters (27,000 square feet.) Rope: 3,050 meters (10,000 feet.)
Duration: 7 days.

5,600 Cubicmeter Package, Documenta 4, Kassel, Germany 1967-1968. An Air Package 82 meters (280 feet) high, six concrete foundations arranged in a 275 meter (900 foot) diameter circle.

1970-1972. Width: 381-417 meters (1,250-1,368 feet). In 1972, he and Jeanne-Claude completed *Running Fence*, a 24.5-mile fabric corridor across northern California. Height: 15 meters (49 feet). Ironically, Jeanne-Claude was already engaged to another man, and in the beginning, Christo fancied her half-sister.

Despite Jeanne-Claude’s engagement to another man, and Christo’s initial attraction to Jeanne-Claudes sister, the two fell in love.

Their son Lysander Christo was born September 22, 2005.

1961
Project for the Wrapping of a Public Building
Stacked Oil Barrels, Dockside Packages at Cologne Harbor. In 1998 he married Marie B. Wilkinson. Width: 4 kilometers ( 2. The city of Paris honored the artist by wrapping the Arc D’ Triomphe in 2021, the culmination of a planned project between Christo, Jeanne-Claude, and the city.

Famous Work

Since these projects are designed to be temporary, the best way to truly experience them is to be on-site and witness them firsthand.

The second-best option is to buy artwork depicting these installations in action.

These artworks were created by Christo himself and they bear his signature.

In 1964, the couple relocated to New York City, establishing it as the base for their future projects. 2,050 fabric panels: 192 square meters (240,000 square yards) of woven nylon fabric suspended from 144 kilometers (90 miles) of steel cables. 3 meters (14 feet).