Christo and Jean Claude

CHRISTO (Bulgaria, 1935) and JEANNE CLAUDE DE GUILLEBON (Morocco, 1935 - United States, 2009).
"Wrapped Trees. Basel 1997-1998."
Original print.
Belongs to the book Wrapped Trees: Fondation Beyeler and Berower Park, Riehen, Basel, Switzerland, 1997-98. Edition of 1000 copies.
Work signed by Christo, Jeanne Claude and Wolfgang Volz.
Measurements: 24 x 30 cm; 44 x 50 cm (frame).
In autumn 1998, Christo and Jeanne-Claude transformed 162 trees around the Fondation Beyeler into a sculptural masterpiece, wrapping them in 55,000 square meters of polyester fabric. It was the artists' "pièce de résistance" in a long history of wrapping trees, creating an ever-changing panorama of form, texture and color. This limited art edition, which includes a print and fabric swatch of the project, tells the story of the project from beginning to end.
A renowned artistic couple of the late 20th century, Christo and Jeanne-Claude's wrapped objects are some of the most extreme examples of modern conceptual art. Christo Valdimirov Javacheff, the primary artist and designer of the duo's projects, studied between 1952 and 1956 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia, then spent a year in Prague. In 1957 Christo fled the socialist state and settled in Vienna, from where he traveled to Geneva and finally to Paris, settling in the French capital. His life in Paris was characterized by economic deprivation and social isolation, which was increased by his difficulty in learning the French language. He earned money painting portraits, which he compared to prostitution. Visiting the city's galleries and museums, he was inspired by the work of Joan Miró, Nicholas de Stael, Jackson Pollock, Jean Tinguely and mainly Jean Dubuffet. In January 1958, Christo made his first piece of "wrapped art"; he covered an empty paint jar with a canvas soaked in acrylic. He tied it up and colored it with glue, sand and automobile paint. Christo and Jeanne-Claude met in Paris in November 1958, when he was commissioned to paint a portrait of her mother. Although Jeanne-Claude married another man, she became pregnant by Christo and left her husband after their honeymoon. Despite opposition from Jeanne-Claude's family, the couple married in 1962. By 1959, Christo had changed his approach to wrapped objects. Instead of embellishing the wrapped material with glue and sand, he kept it intact. The following year, he stopped painting altogether and completed his "Inventory" series. In 1961 he tackled what would be his first project with large objects, wrapping barrels in the German port of Cologne. In 1962, as a couple, Christo and Jeanne-Claude tackled their first monumental project, "Rideau de fer" ("Steel Curtain"), as a statement against the Berlin Wall. The work consisted of blocking off Visconti Street over the river with oil barrels. Although Christo was simultaneously holding his first gallery exhibition, it was the Visconti project that made him known in Paris. In 1964 the couple settled in New York, and continued to carry out projects and exhibitions both in the United States and Europe. In 1968 they participated in Documenta 4 in Kassel, and in 1969 they undertook one of their most famous projects, that of wrapping the Little Bay waterfront in Sydney, Australia. Since then, Christo and Jeanne-Claude have completed numerous large-scale projects around the world, including "Running fence" and "Wrapped walk ways" in the United States, "Pont Neuf" in Paris, "Umbrellas" simultaneously in the United States and Japan, and the Reichstag building in Germany. His most recent work was "The Gates" (2005), consisting of the installation of seven thousand five hundred metallic frames in the Central