Baltimore Sun

Artist’s massive works quickly vanished from public view

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NEW YORK — Christo, known for massive, ephemeral public arts projects died Sunday at his home in New York. He was 84.

His death was announced on Twitter and the artist’s web page. No cause of death was given.

Along with late wife Jeanne- Claude, the artists’ careers were defined by ambitious art projects that quickly disappeare­d soon after they were erected.

In 2005, he installed more than 7,500 vinyl gates in New York’s Central Park and and wrapped the Reichstag in Berlin in fabric with an aluminum sheen in 1995.

Their $26 million Umbrellas project erected 1,340 blue umbrellas in Japan and 1,760 blue umbrellas in Southern California in 1991.

The statement said the artist’s next project — L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped — is scheduled to appear in September in Paris as planned. An exhibition about Christo and Jeanne- Claude’s work is also scheduled to run from July through October at the Centre Georges Pompidou.

“Christo lived his life to the fullest, not only dreaming up what seemed impossible but realizing it,” his office said in a statement. “Christo and Jeanne- Claude’s artwork brought people together in shared experience­s across the globe, and their work lives on in our hearts and memories.”

Born in Bulgaria in 1935, Christo Vladimirov Javacheff studied at the Fine Arts Academy in Sofia before moving to Prague in 1957, then Vienna, then Geneva. It was in Paris in 1958 where he met Jeanne- Claude Denat de Guillebon.

They were born on the same day in the same year, and, according to him, “in the same moment,” and would become partners in life and art.

Christo was already wrapping smaller found objects, like cars and furniture. After he met Jeanne- Claude, their scale broadened. Within three years they were working together on an installati­on of oil drums and tarp on the docks in Cologne, Germany.

Although their large-scale outdoor and indoor projects were collaborat­ive, they were all credited solely to Christo until 1994, when they revealed Jeanne- Claude’s contributi­ons. The decision, they said, was theirs and deliberate since it was difficult enough for even one artist to make a name for himself.

The pair moved to New York in 1964, where they liked to say that they were illegal aliens in an illegal building in SoHo for a few years. They eventually bought that building and would call the city home for the rest of their lives.

Jeanne- Claude died in 2009 at age 74 from complicati­ons of a brain aneurysm. After her death, Christo said she was argumentat­ive and critical and always asking questions, and he missed all of that.

In a 2018 interview, Christo spoke about his signature wrapping aesthetic. In the instance of the Reichstag, he said, covering it with fabric made the Victorian sculptures, ornament and decoration disappear and “highlight the principal proportion of architectu­re.”

“But, like classical sculpture, all our wrapped projects are not solid buildings; they are moving with the wind, they are breathing,” he said. “The fabric is very sensual and inviting; it’s like a skin.”

The two made a point of paying for all of their works on their own and did not accept scholarshi­p or donations.

“I like to be absolutely free, to be totally irrational with no justificat­ion for what I like to do,” he said. “I will not give up one centimeter of my freedom for anything.”

 ?? VALERY HACHE/GETTY-AFP 2016 ?? Artist Christo poses in front of the monumental “Mastaba” artwork at the Fondation Maeght in France. Christo died Sunday at his home in New York. He was 84.
VALERY HACHE/GETTY-AFP 2016 Artist Christo poses in front of the monumental “Mastaba” artwork at the Fondation Maeght in France. Christo died Sunday at his home in New York. He was 84.
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