Christo and Jeanne Claude

Store Fronts
Using salvaged building elements, Christo began to construct works in New York in 1964 that represented actual store fronts. This body of work emphasized two aspects that would remain central to many of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's projects: architecture and concealment. These "store" façades, many of them full scale and illuminated from within, reference consumer culture. The artist, however, teasingly denied access to the contents by applying cloth or paper to the inside of the windows. The Store Fronts, themselves receptacles of display, also reflect upon the museum and its exhibition practices. By the late 1960s, Christo and Jeanne-Claude had begun to wrap entire museums, thus obscuring those sites of display.

wrapped tree


wrapped coast



gates


The environmental works the pair creates span great distances in populated landscapes, both rural and urban. They are mostly made of fabric, created in the form of a large curtain, wrapped forms (buildings, coastline, a bridge), surrounded islands, large umbrellas, and other forms. They pay all expenses associated with the artworks, including planning, construction, and taking down, partly from the sale of Christo's preliminary drawings, early works from the 1950's and 1960's, and lithographs. They accept no contributions, grants or other financial assistance, preferring to make their aesthetic decisions apart from any influence financial backing might involve. A large group of paid workers is necessary to construct and take down these works, which can extend for great distances. Usually, there are years of planning, and meetings and hearings held by governments and communities, to gain approval for their projects. They wrapped the Reichstag, today the Parliament of Germany in Berlin, and the process of approval took 24 years. Their work is very expressive, of romanticism, whimsy, poetry, and like much contemporary art, is more experiential perhaps than viewing art in a museum (passively) can sometimes be.


Common Errors
Christo and Jeanne-Claude Respond


The most common error is the misunderstanding that the artist is Christo.

• The artist is not Christo.

• The artists are Christo and Jeanne-Claude.

Most common errors which have been found in art books, magazines, newspapers and seen on television:

Christo was born in Bulgaria NOT IN SEVEN OTHER COUNTRIES

The Game of Errors: There are six errors in the following published short sentence:

"Christo wrapped some islands in Florida, off the coast of Miami in Key Biscayne with pink plastic."

1.-2. Christo and Jeanne-Claude never wrapped any Islands. They surrounded the islands. Most journalists do not understand the difference between wrapping and surrounding even though they should know that the United Kingdom is surrounded by water, it is not wrapped in water.

3. There were eleven islands surrounded, but because in two occasions 2 islands were surrounded together, there was a total of nine configurations on a span of seven miles.

4. Not off the coast. Off the coast would be in the Atlantic Ocean, east of Miami Beach.

5. It was in Biscayne Bay in the heart of the city of Miami, between Miami City and Miami Beach. Key Biscayne is miles away from there.

6. Not plastic - FABRIC, woven polypropylene is a man-made fiber, and is woven. Plastic usually refers to a film, not woven. For instance, women who wear nylon stockings are not wearing plastic stockings.

Error: "Running Fence, in Sonoma, made of parachute material."

1.Sonoma is a town in Northern California miles away from the Running Fence. The temporary work of art was located in Sonoma County and in Marin County (Sonoma and Marin Counties).

2.The nylon fabric of the Running Fence could never be used for parachutes. God forbid that anyone would ever jump with that type of fabric.

Error: "Volunteers"

NEVER on any project Except Jeanne-Claude's mother, everyone who works is paid: normal union wages for specialized professional workers, and just above minimum wage for non-skilled workers. One important exception: for the Wrapped Coast, One Million Square Feet, Little Bay, Australia, 1968-69 out of 125 paid workers, eleven architecture students refused to be paid. Three of them became artists after the project and are now well known.
Error: "Christo and Jeanne-Claude are mysterious about their work."

NO. Christo and Jeanne-Claude constantly lecture and answer questions from the audience, in museums, colleges, universities and schools all over the world. It is probable that no other artists lecture as much as they do.

Error: "Mr. Christo"

NO: Christo is his first name and the only one he uses. Jeanne-Claude also uses her first name .However, their son Cyril uses Christo's first name as his legal last name: Cyril Christo, born May 11, 1960, is a published poet.

Error: "Jean-Claude" We also get letters addressed to Mr.and Mrs. Claude

No: Jeanne-Claude. (in French Jean-Claude is a man's name.) Some people think that our Last name is Claude. (because of Christo and Jeanne-Claude)

Error: "Christo always sold his work at high price."

Christo and Jeanne-Claude are their own art dealers, they sell Christo's works to Art Collectors, Museums, Galleries and Art Dealers. In 1958, the price of Christo's works varied, according to size, between $40 and $100. Christo and Jeanne-Claude were happy with such prices, because their rent in Paris was $70 a month. To supplement the non-sales of his art, between 1956 and 1964 Christo, in addition to washing cars in garages and dishes in restaurants, had to paint portraits, oil on canvas, which he signed by his family name: Javacheff. Those were highly paid $200 to $300 each. That is how they could survive. That is also how he met Jeanne-Claude, in Paris in 1958, when he painted the portrait of Jeanne-Claude's mother. By the time Christo had done an impressionist portrait, a classical portrait and a cubist portrait of the mother, Christo and Jeanne-Claude were in love...

Error: "Conceptual Artists"

No – a conception on a paper is not Christo and Jeanne-Claude's idea of art. They want to build their projects – they could save a lot of money by not building them, by just keeping them on paper – as conceptual artists do. Christo and Jeanne-Claude want to SEE their project realized because they believe it will be a work of art of joy and beauty. The only way to see it is to build it.

Environmental Artist: Yes – because they created many works in Cities – in Urban environments – and also in Rural Environments but NEVER in deserted places, and always sites already prepared and used by people, managed by human beings for human beings. Therefore they are not "Land Art" either.

We believe that labels are important, but mostly for bottles of wine.

Error: "The easy life of an artist"

Not quite so. Until 2006 Christo was working an average of 17 hours a day – 7 days a week. These days, he works and average of 13 hours a day. Jeanne-Claude is a bit lazier, only 10 hours a day.

They do not take vacations.

So-Called Environmentalists, in the past, have claimed, before each project, that Christo and Jeanne-Claude will hurt the environment. They realized, after the completion that:

1. Christo and Jeanne-Claude are the cleanest artists in the world, all is removed, their large scale works of art are temporary.

2. The sites are restored to their original condition and most materials are recycled. Except in Florida, for the Surrounded Islands. That site was luckily not restored to its original condition. Christo and Jeanne-Claude's workers removed, before the project, at Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s expense, 40 tons of garbage from the eleven Islands (one of the islands was called "beer cans island" – of course the garbage was not restored to the Islands!

3. The Real Environmentalists such as "The Audubon Society" and "The Sierra Club" usually find themselves on Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s side – because they are better informed. They know how much Christo and Jeanne-Claude spend to make the public aware of the environment, through the art work, much more than Environmentalists can afford to do.

Error: "See the art work best by flying."

No! None of their work is designed for the birds, all have a scale to be enjoyed by human beings who are on the ground.