Christo

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Christo ( Christo Javacheff) (1935– ). Bulgarian-born sculptor and experimental artist who settled in New York in 1964 and became an American citizen in 1973. He was born in Gabrovo, the son of an engineer-chemist who ran a textile factory, and studied at the Academy in Sofia, 1952–6. After brief periods in Prague, Vienna (where he studied sculpture with Wotruba), and Geneva, he moved to Paris, where he lived from 1958 to 1964. Initially he earned his living there as a portrait painter, but soon after his arrival he invented ‘empaquetage’ (packaging), a form of expression he has made his own and for which he has become world-famous. It consists of wrapping objects in materials such as canvas or semi-transparent plastic and dubbing the result art. He began with small objects such as paint tins from his studio (in this he had been anticipated by Man Ray), but they increased in size and ambitiousness through trees and motor cars to buildings and sections of landscape. His first one-man exhibition was at the Galerie Haro Lauhus, Cologne, in 1961 and in the same year he made his first project for a wrapped public building. He spends a great deal of time and effort negotiating permission to carry out such work and then (if negotiations are successful) in planning the operations, which can involve teams of professional rock-climbers as well as construction workers. He finances such massive enterprises through the sale of his smaller works. The buildings that he has succeeded in wrapping include the Kunsthalle, Berne (1968), the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1969), the Pont-Neuf in Paris (1985, after nine years of negotiations), and the Reichstag in Berlin (1995). Among the landscape projects he has carried out are the packaging of a mile of coastline near Sydney, Australia (1969), Valley Curtain across Rifle Gap, Colorado (1972), and Running Fence, something like a fabric equivalent of the Great Wall of China, undulating through 24 miles of Sonoma and Marin Counties, California (1976). Christo says of his work: ‘You can say it's about displacement. Basically even today I am a displaced person, and that is why I make art that does not last … I make very stimulating things. Unlike steel, or stone, or wood, the fabric catches the physicality of the wind, the sun. They are refreshing. And then they are quickly gone.’ Christo's wife, Jeanne-Claude (née de Guillebon) (1935– ), collaborates with him in his work. See also ENVIRONMENTAL ART.

Christo ( Christo Javacheff) (b Gabrovo, 13 June 1935). Bulgarian-born sculptor and experimental artist who settled in New York in 1964 and became an American citizen in 1973. After brief periods in Prague, Vienna (where he studied sculpture with Wotruba), and Geneva, he moved to Paris, where he lived from 1958 to 1964. Initially he earned his living there as a portrait painter, but soon after his arrival he invented ‘empaquetage’ (packaging), a form of expression he has made his own and for which he has become world-famous. It consists of wrapping objects in materials such as canvas or semi-transparent plastic and dubbing the result art. He began with small objects such as paint tins from his studio (in this he had been anticipated by Man Ray), but they increased in size through trees and motor cars to buildings and sections of landscape. He spends a great deal of time and effort negotiating permission to carry out such work and in planning the operations, which can involve teams of professional rock climbers as well as construction workers. He finances such massive enterprises through the sale of his smaller works. The buildings that he has succeeded in wrapping include the Pont Neuf in Paris (1985, after nine years of negotiations), and the Reichstag in Berlin (1995). Among the landscape projects he has carried out is Running Fence, something like a fabric equivalent of the Great Wall of China, undulating through 38 km (24 miles) of Sonoma and Marin Counties, California (1976). Christo says of his work: ‘You can say it's about displacement. Basically even today I am a displaced person, and that is why I make art that does not last…Unlike steel, or stone, or wood, the fabric catches the physicality of the wind, the sun. They are refreshing. And then they are quickly gone.’ Christo's wife Jeanne-Claude (née de Guillebon) (1935– ) collaborates with him in his work.

Christo ( Christo Javacheff) (1935– ). Bulgarian-born sculptor and experimental artist who settled in New York in 1964 and became an American citizen in 1973. After brief periods in Prague, Vienna (where he studied sculpture with Wotruba), and Geneva, he moved to Paris, where he lived from 1958 to 1964. Initially he earned his living there as a portrait painter, but soon after his arrival he invented empaquetage (packaging), a form of expression he has made his own and for which he has become world-famous. It consists of wrapping objects in materials such as canvas or semi-transparent plastic and dubbing the result art. He began with small objects such as paint tins from his studio (in this he had been anticipated by Man Ray), but they increased in size through trees and motor cars to buildings and sections of landscape. He spends a great deal of time and effort negotiating permission to carry out such work and in planning the operations, which can involve teams of professional rock-climbers as well as construction workers. He finances such massive enterprises through the sale of his smaller works. The buildings that he has succeeded in wrapping include the Pont Neuf in Paris (1985, after nine years of negotiations), and the Reichstag in Berlin (1995). Among the landscape projects he has carried out is Running Fence (1976), something like a fabric equivalent of the Great Wall of China, undulating through 39 km (24 miles) of Sonoma and Marin Counties, California. Christo says of his work: ‘You can say it's about displacement. Basically even today I am a displaced person, and that is why I make art that does not last…Unlike steel, or stone, or wood, the fabric catches the physicality of the wind, the sun. They are refreshing. And then they are quickly gone.’ Christo's wife, Jeanne-Claude (née de Guillebon) (1935– ), collaborates with him.

Christo , 1935–, Bulgarian-American artist, b. Gabrovo as Christo Vladimirov Javacheff, studied Sofia, Vienna, and Paris. His early experiments in assemblage led to his trademark device of wrapping familiar objects in cloth and other materials, giving them an artificial skin that simultaneously conceals, reveals, and transforms them. From 1958 on he worked with his wife and artistic partner, Jeanne-Claude (Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon), 1935–2009, b. Casablanca, studied Univ. of Tunis (grad. 1952). The two met in Paris and moved to New York City in 1964. A leading figure in conceptual art, Christo, in collaboration with Jeanne-Claude, has specialized in large-scale temporary outdoor installations. Running Fence (1976), a shimmering fabric curtain, was strung more than 24 mi (39 km) across the rolling N California landscape. Other projects have included surrounding 11 islands in Florida's Biscayne Bay with floating hot-pink fabric (1983), wrapping the Pont Neuf in Paris (1985), concurrent installations of thousands of 20-ft (6-m) tall umbrellas—blue near Tokyo and yellow near Los Angeles (1991), and wrapping Berlin's Reichstag in silvery fabric (1995). On the paths and natural contours of New York City's Central Park the two created (2005) The Gates, a meandering installation of more than 7,500 rectangular, 16-ft-tall (5-m) gates, each hung, to about halfway down, with a saffron panel.

Bibliography: See dual biography by B. Chernow (2002); studies by D. Laporte (1986), J. Schellmann and J. Benecke (1988), M. Vaizey (1990), and J. Baal-Teshuva (1995); D. and A. Maysles, dir., documentary films: Christo's Valley Curtain (1974), Running Fence (1978), Islands (1986), Christo in Paris (1990), and Umbrellas (1995).