Christo and Jeanne-Claude: A Wrapped-Up Love
Just a few artists’ names pop to mind when thinking about Land Art and how it has changed the obsolete paradigms of Art History. First acknowledged in the 1960s-70s as part of the broader Conceptual Art movement, – in which the ideas and concepts behind artworks are usually more important than the finished artwork itself – Land Art became an innovative way to redefine and update these preconceptions. Thanks to a more conscious understanding of the Earth and its environment, the movement actively helped and advocated several organisations’ advertisements for a brighter and healthier future, highlighting the many wonders our planet hides in its most remote corners.
Among these worldwide famous artists, the Franco-Bulgarian couple Christo and Jeanne-Claude probably takes one of the first places in terms of prominence and productivity. After having met in Paris in 1958, not only did they get married, but became a lifelong partnership which changed the Land Art movement forever with monumental artworks spread all over the world.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Photo Courtesy: Fred W. McDarrah.
After finding a bigger studio which allowed them to work on large-scale projects, the couple realised their first outdoor environmental artwork in 1961, when Christo’s first solo exhibition opened at Galerie Haro Lauhus in Cologne, through the wrapping of rolls of paper and oil barrels. From this moment on, the wrapping will be the fil-rouge that links all the works together. Starting with the first rather small experiments up until the covering of entire buildings, wrapping has been the common denominator of all their projects. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, they began by wrapping common objects: cans, bottles, and packages, expanding later towards cars and people during live performances. It was towards the end of the 1960s that their projects physically “expanded” into the wrapping of monuments and buildings, small islands and several other artworks that follow a rather different perspective. All the projects are very complex in a political sense and tend to focus on human relations and how the artist as a person has the control over the three-dimensional space. As stated by journalist Miss Rosen for Dazed Magazine, “The exquisite physicality of their work is intrinsic to the artists themselves, navigating the spaces between the political, the personal, and the material worlds” [1]. Without ever repeating themselves, Christo and Jeanne-Claude were able to create new forms of dialogue and to find correlations between the human and the natural worlds.
One of the first public wrappings was the covering of the Bern Kunsthalle (1967-68), in Switzerland, followed a year later by the monumental Wrapped Coast, One Million Square Feet: one million square feet of fabric and 35 miles of rope which extended on the Australian coastline near Sydney for ten weeks. The project, which included almost 150 paid workers from different backgrounds, was – just like all of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s artworks – entirely financed through the sale of Christo’s preparatory drawings and early works. Materials were removed at the end of the ten weeks and ready to be recycled for the next project, with little to no waste.
Christo directing work at the Wrapped Coast Project. Little Bay, 1969. Photo Courtesy: Shunk-Kender © 1969. Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation and J. Paul Getty Trust.
Throughout the 1970s-80s Christo and Jeanne-Claude worked on a series of wrapped projects in the main European cities: Milan, Rome, Berlin and Paris. In Milan, they wrapped the equestrian statue of the former king of Italy Vittorio Emanuele II on Piazza Duomo and the monument to Leonardo da Vinci on Piazza della Scala, right in front of the eponymous theatre. Both monuments could be seen from the centre of the Galleria and lasted only for a few days before being unwrapped. In 1973-74, a section of the Aurelian Walls in Rome was wrapped for 40 days, followed by the wrapping projects of the Pont-Neuf in Paris in 1985 and of the Berlin Reichstag in June 1995.
Wrapped Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II, Piazza del Duomo, Milan, Italy, 1970. Photo Courtesy: Shunk-Kender © 1970. Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation.
Despite the focus on the actual wrapping of natural things, monuments and buildings, the artistic couple also directed their work towards installations of different kinds, most of the time readapting the same materials in new forms and contexts. One of the first examples is Valley Curtain (1970-72), a bright orange nylon curtain installed between a junction in the Grand Hogback Mountain Range, Rifle, Colorado. The installation, which lasted only 28 hours due to the strong winds typical of the territory, is to be considered not only an artwork but a real engineering work designed to cover the 200,200 square feet of the canyon. The “Curtain” was followed a few years later by Running Fence (1972-76), in north San Francisco, an extended fence made of nylon fabric that stretched on the private property of 59 ranchers down towards the Pacific Ocean. After several public hearings, three sessions at the Superior Court of California, the drafting of a 450-page Environmental Impact Report and the ranchers’ blessings, the Fence was designed and structured to last for a couple of weeks and to be viewed by 40 miles of public roads, while all materials were to be given to the ranchers after its deinstallation.
Valley Curtain, Rifle, Colorado, 1970-1972. Photo Courtesy: Shunk-Kender © 1972. Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation and J. Paul Getty Trust.
Arguably one of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s most visually stunning artworks is Surrounded Islands (1980-83), an installation in which eleven little islands situated in the bay of Miami were surrounded by 6.5 million square feet of floating shiny pink fabric covering the surface of the water all around them. The project was created with the fundamental collaboration of marine biologists, marine engineers and land crews while permits were obtained through several governmental agencies. As stated by the couple’s official website, “Surrounded Islands was a work of art underlining the various elements and ways in which the people of Miami live, between land and water” [2].
Surrounded Islands, Biscayne Bay, Greater Miami, Florida, 1980-83. Photo Courtesy: Wolfgang Volz © 1983. Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude in his studio with preparatory works for Surrounded Islands, New York City, 1981. Photo Courtesy: Bob Kiss © 1981. Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation
In October 1991, Christo and Jeanne-Claude were on opposite sides of the world at the same time when their installation The Umbrellas (1984-91) was located in Japan and California. 3100 umbrellas which were to reflect the similarities and differences in the lifestyle and relationship with the land between Japan and the USA. In the lush Japanese rice fields, watery and humid, umbrellas were blue; in the vast and arid territory of California, with its blond grass, the umbrellas were yellow and randomly scattered throughout the valley.
In 2005, their first artwork of the 21st century was presented in Central Park, New York City, where 7503 gates covered 37 kilometres of walkaways inside the park in saffron fabric panels juxtaposed close to one another. As stated by the artists’ website, “The people of New York continued to use the park as usual. For those who walked through The Gates, […], the saffron colored fabric was a golden ceiling creating warm shadows. When seen from the buildings surrounding Central Park, The Gates seemed like a golden river” [3].
Largely considered one of the most amazing Land artworks of this century, The Floating Piers (2014-16) transformed Italy’s Lake Iseo for 16 days in the burning summer of 2016. A modular floating dock system covered in yellow fabric was able to make visitors “walk on water” as they went from Sulzano to Monte Isola and the little island of San Paolo. The artwork was free and open to the public – I myself had the chance to experience it after queuing for several hours in the burning July sun. It was the first large-scale project since Jeanne-Claude passed away in 2009, visually described in all its magnificence in the documentary Walking on Water (2018) directed by Andrey Paounov.
The Floating Piers, Lake Iseo, Italy, 2014-16 . Photo Courtesy: Wolfgang Volz © 2016. Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation.
A more modern approach was used for the last two projects Christo carried on, the last one to be completed by his team after his death in 2020. The London Mastaba (2016-18) was presented floating atop Hyde Park’s Serpentine Lake in the centre of London, the first major public outdoor work in the UK by Christo, which coincided with an exhibition on the artistic couple held at the Serpentine Galleries. The installation consisted of 7506 horizontally stacked barrels on a floating platform which covered approximately 1% of the total surface area of the lake. In 2021 Christo’s team moved to Paris to complete L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped, in coordination with the City of Paris. A project which was concretised after 60 years of waiting and inspiration.
The London Mastaba, Serpentine Lake, Hyde Park, 2016-18 . Photo Courtesy: Wolfgang Volz © 2018. Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation.
During a conference the creative duo Christo and Jeanne-Claude gave at the Fairmont Hotel in California, they were able to philosophically describe and conceptualise their doctrine. Their artworks disrupt buildings and landscapes, making viewers and visitors perceive the environment and nature around them differently, deeply, as in a more radical connection with the Earth itself. Christo describes these disruptions he and his artistic partner create as “gentle disturbances”, a sort of magical effect that by wrapping or surrounding can change and re-create an environment for a few days or weeks [4]. These installations have had the power to promote a more conscious relationship with our planet, our land, that even when being touched by human hands is able to come back to its original form without variations and speculations. It is indeed ephemerality, one of the main concepts of Land Art, which makes it as unique as the little time you have to enjoy it, without ever having it back. Just like Christo and Jeanne-Claude's artworks which, even if they were never meant to last, will be remembered forever.
Bibliography
Miss Rosen, “How Christo and Jeanne-Claude redefined the possibilities of public art”, Dazed Digital, 19/06/2018.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Official Website, under “Artworks: Surrounded Islands”.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Official Website, under “Artworks: The Gates”.
Kathleen Lang, “Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Gentle Disturbances”, Art a GoGo, 2000.
Beatrice Borriero
En Plein Air Co-Editor, MADE IN BED
