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We create works of art of joy and beauty.
――――――Christo and Jeanne-Claude
Christo and Jeanne-Claude at The Gates, Project for Central Park, New York City 1979-2005 February 2005
(Photo: Wolfgang Volz)
Christo and Jeanne-Claude
Christo was born in the town of Gabrovo, Bulgaria, June 13,1935. Jeanne-Claude was born in Casa Blanca, Morocco to French parents on the same date, and passed away on November 18, 2009. After graduating from the National Academy of Arts in Sofia, Christo studied in Vienna and Geneva before defecting in Paris in 1958. He met Jeanne-Claude in the autumn of the same year, after which they began creating unique works of art together. In 1961 they began temporary, outdoor site-specific art projects like the Dockside Packages at Cologne Harbor in Germany, and the Iron Curtain-Wall of Oil Barrels in Paris the following year.
They moved to New York City in 1964. In later projects they often used cloth to transform urban and suburban scenery, as exemplified in The Valley Curtain, Rifle, Colorado, 1970-72, The Pont-Neuf Wrapped, Paris, 1975-85, and The Umbrellas, Japan-USA, 1984-91, The Gates, Central Park, New York City, 1979-2005. Ongoing works include The Mastaba Project for the United Arab Emirates, which began in 1977, and Over the River, Project for the Arkansas River, State of Colorado, which began in 1992. Christo still devotes himself to the completion of these two projects in spite of the sudden death of Jeanne-Claude
on November 18, 2009.