‘I like to be absolutely free’: Christo, artist known for massive outdoor projects with his wife Jeanne-Claude, and for self-funding their work, dies at 84
- They wrapped the Reichstag in Berlin in fabric, the Pont Neuf in Paris, a section of Australia’s coast. Conceptual artists Christo and Jean-Claude were one-offs
- With his death aged 84, 11 years after hers, their huge, ephemeral art will come to an end with the wrapping of L’Arc de Triomphe in Paris in September.
Christo, the Bulgarian-born artist known for his massive, ephemeral public arts projects, has died at the age of 84.
His death was announced on Twitter and the artist’s web page. No cause was given.
He and his late wife Jeanne-Claude artistic careers were defined by their ambitious art projects that quickly disappeared soon after they were erected that and often involved wrapping large structures in fabric.
In 2005, they installed more than 7,500 saffron-colored vinyl gates in New York’s Central Park. They wrapped the Reichstag in Berlin in fabric with an aluminum sheen in 1995. Their US$26 million Umbrellas project erected 1,340 blue umbrellas installed in Japan and 1,760 yellow umbrellas in California in 1991. They also wrapped the Pont Neuf in Paris, the Kunsthalle in Berne, Switzerland, and a Roman wall in Italy.
