About Christo
Christo Vladimirov Javacheff (1935–2020) and Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon (1935–2009), known as Christo and Jeanne-Claude, were artists noted for their large-scale, site-specific environmental installations. Both born on June 13, 1935—Christo in Bulgaria and Jeanne-Claude in Morocco—they met in Paris in the late 1950s and relocated to New York in 1964, where their practice evolved from wrapped objects into monumental public interventions that redefined contemporary art.
Over five decades of collaboration, Christo and Jeanne-Claude executed some of the most ambitious and visually transformative artworks of the modern era. Their monumental projects included Valley Curtain (1972; Rifle Gap, Colorado), Running Fence (1976; Marin and Sonoma counties, California), and Surrounded Islands (1983; Biscayne Bay, Florida). In 1985 in Paris, they wrapped the Pont Neuf (bridge) in beige cloth. Christo and Jeanne-Claude wrapped the Berlin Reichstag building in 1995 following 24 years of governmental lobbying across six Bundestag presidents. Wrapped Reichstag's 100,000 square meters of silver fabric draped the building, fastened with blue rope. Their later projects included The Gates in Central Park (2005), The Floating Piers at Lake Iseo (2016), and L'Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped in Paris (2021, posthumously realized).
Central to their artistic vision was the principle of ephemerality—each installation existed for only weeks or months, then was dismantled and the site restored. The pair refused grants, scholarships, donations or public money instead financing their work via the sale of their artwork. This commitment to creative independence meant that preparatory drawings, collages, scale models, and signed limited edition prints became the primary lasting artifacts of their monumental visions. Christo's works are held in major collections across the world.
