There are certain people that have changed my way of thinking and therefore formed me as a person. Jeanne Claude and Christo changed my way of thinking about creating art.
They thought out of the box. Way out of the box.
In addition their life long dedication to one another, and their partnership in work and in life is also something I aspired to.
Though I have never become a great artist, their influence helped me in my pedestrian work as an event designer. To this day I am still wrapping things ala Jean Claude and Christo.
In my personal life I am involved in the kind of partnership they role modeled for me.
And lastly at age 60, I think of the next two decades to come as my final curtain, and so am sentimental when someone I so admire passes from this earth.
Jeanne Claude passed away last Wednesday at the young age of 74.
Besides being a great artist and partner to Christo, I admired her as one of The Great Red Heads. I have had a fascination and admiration for woman of a certain age and artistic nature who dye their hair wonderful shocking shades of red: Lucy, Collette, Shirley MacClaine, Jeanne Claude - well you get the idea.
So condolences to Christo, and their family and friends, and to us the world at large who have lost a great good heart, and a true original thinker.
The artist is not Christo
The artists are Christo and Jeanne-Claude
from the Christo's web site in a fascinating section called Common Errors
Jeanne-Claude: American, French-born Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon, June 13, 1935, Casablanca, of a French military family, educated in France and Switzerland.
1952
Jeanne-Claude. Baccalaureat in Latin and Philosophy, University of Tunis.
1953-56
Christo: Studies at Fine Arts Academy, Sofia, Bulgaria.
1957
He studies one semester at the Vienna Fine Arts Academy.
1958
Christo arrives in Paris where he meets Jeanne-Claude.
Packages and Wrapped Objects
Wrapped Oil Barrels 1958-59
1960
Birth of their son, Cyril, May 11. Cyril Christo is a poet. He studied at Cornell University and graduated from Columbia University in 1982. Five books of his poems have been published. In 1998 he married Marie B. Wilkinson. Their son Lysander Christo was born September 22, 2005.
1961
Project for the Wrapping of a Public Building
Stacked Oil Barrels, Dockside Packages at Cologne Harbor. Tarpaulin and rope. Duration: 2 weeks. Their first collaboration.
1962
Iron Curtain-Wall of Oil Barrels, Rue Visconti, Paris, 1961-62 240 barrels. Height: 4. 3 meters (14 feet). Width: 3. 8 meters (13 feet). Depth: 1. 7 meters (5 feet 6 inch). Duration: 8 hours.
Stacked Oil Barrels, Gentilly, near Paris.
Wrapped Woman 1962
Showcases.
1963
Store Fronts and Show Windows
1964
Establishment of permanent residence in New York City.
1966
Air Package 1966. Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Rubberized canvas balloon and rope Diameter: 5.18 meters (17 feet.). Duration: One month.
and Wrapped Tree 1966.
42,390 Cubicfeet Package 1966 at the Walker Art Center and the Minneapolis School of Art. Length:18 meters (60 feet) Polyethylene: 720 square meters (8,000 square feet). Manila rope: 914 meters (3,000 feet) Duration: Three days.
1968
Wrapped Fountain and Wrapped Medieval Tower, Spoleto, Italy Polyethylene and ropes. Duration: 3 weeks.
Wrapping of a Public Building "Wrapped Kunsthalle Berne 1967-1968" Fabric: 2,430 square meters (27,000 square feet.) Rope: 3,050 meters (10,000 feet.) Duration: 7 days.
5,600 Cubicmeter Package, Documenta 4, Kassel, Germany 1967-68 An Air Package 82 meters (280 feet) high, six concrete foundations arranged in a 275 meter (900 foot) diameter circle. Fabric: 1,980 square meters (22,000 square feet) Weight: 6,350 kilograms (14,000 pounds). Rope: 3,657 meters (12,000 feet) Duration: two and a half months.
Corridor Store Front, total area: 135 square meters (1,500 square feet).
1,240 Oil Barrels Mastaba, and Two Tons of Stacked Hay, Philadelphia Institute of Contemporary Art.
1969
Wrapped Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Tarpaulin: 900 square meters (10,000 square feet) and rope. Duration: 40 days.
Wrapped Floor and Stairway. Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. House painter&Mac226;s cotton drop cloths, 252 square meters (2,800 square feet) and rope. Duration: 40 days.
Wrapped Coast, Little Bay, One Million Square Feet, Sydney, Australia, Erosion Control fabric: 90,000 square meters (1,000,000 square feet) and 58 kilometers. (36 miles) of ropes. Duration:
Two months.
1970
Wrapped Monuments, Milano: Monument to Vittorio Emanuele, Piazza del Duomo, Milano, Italy. Polyethylene and rope.
Duration: Two days.
Monument to Leonardo da Vinci, Piazza della Scala, Milano, Italy. Polyethylene and rope. Duration: Seven days.
1971
Wrapped Floors, Covered Windows and Wrapped Walk Ways, Haus Lange, Krefeld, Germany. House painter's cotton drop cloths. Duration: 30 days.
1972
Valley Curtain, Grand Hogback, Rifle, Colorado, 1970-72, Width: 381 &Mac246; 417 meters (1,250-1,368 feet). Height: 56 &Mac246; 111 meters (185- 365 feet). Nylon polyamide fabric: 12,780 square meters (142,000 square feet). Steel cables: 49,895 kilograms (110,000 pounds); 800 tons of concrete. Duration: 28 hours.
1974
The Wall, Wrapped Roman Wall, Via V. Veneto and Villa, Borghese, Rome, Italy. Polypropylene fabric and Dacron rope. Height: 15 meters (49 feet). Length: 250 meters (820 feet). Width varying between: 4 and 5,5 meters (13 to 18 feet). Duration: 40 days.
Ocean Front, Newport, Rhode Island. Surface: 128 x 97 meters (450 x 320 feet). 13,500 square meters (150,000 square feet) polypropylene fabric floating over the ocean. Duration: 8 days.
1976
Running Fence, Sonoma and Marin Counties, California, 1972-76. 5.5 meters. (18 feet ) high, 39.4 kilometers (24-1/2 miles) long, crossing 14 roads. 2,050 fabric panels: 192 square meters (240,000 square yards) of woven nylon fabric suspended from 144 kilometers (90 miles) of steel cables. 2,080 steel poles, each: 9 cm. (3-1/2 inch) diameter, 6.4 meters (21 feet long). Duration: 14 days.
1977
The Mastaba, Project for United Arab Emirates, in progress.
1978
Wrapped Walk Ways, Loose Park, Kansas City, Missouri, 1977-78 12,000 square meters (15,000 square yards) of woven nylon fabric over 4.5 kilometers (2.8 miles of walkways. Duration: 14 days.
1983
Surrounded Islands, Biscayne Bay, Greater Miami, Florida, 1980-83. Pink woven polypropylene fabric floating around eleven islands: 585,000 square meters (6.5 million square feet). Duration: 14 days.
1984
Wrapped Floors and Stairways and Covered Windows, Architecture Museum, Basel, Switzerland. House painter&Mac226;s cotton drop cloths. Duration: 30 days.
1985
The Pont Neuf Wrapped, Paris, 1975-85. 40,876 square meters (454,178 square feet) woven polyamide fabric. 13,076 meters (42,900 feet ) of rope. Duration: 14 days.
1991
The Umbrellas, Japan-U.S.A., 1984-91. 1,340 blue umbrellas in Ibaraki, Japan; 1,760 yellow umbrellas in California. Each umbrella: height: 6 meters (19 ft 8 in), diameter: 8.66 meters (28 ft 6 in). Valley size in Japan: Length: 19 kilometers (12 miles). Width: 4 kilometers (2. 5 miles). Valley size in USA: Length: 29 kilometers (18 miles). Width: 4 kilometers ( 2. 5 miles) Duration: 18 days.
1992
Over The River, Project for The Arkansas River, Colorado. in progress.
1995
Wrapped Floors and Stairways and Covered Windows 1995. Museum Würth, Künzelsau, Germany. House painter&Mac226;s cotton drop cloth on the floor and stairs and brown wrapping paper on the glass of the windows. Duration: 3 months.
Wrapped Reichstag, Berlin, 1971-95. 100,000 square meters (1,076,000 square feet) of polypropylene fabric. 15,600 meters (51,181 feet) of rope and 200 metric tons of steel. Duration: 14 days.
1998
Wrapped Trees, Fondation Beyeler and Berower Park, Riehen-Basel, Switzerland 1997-98. 178 trees. 53,283 square meters (592,034 square feet) of woven polyester fabric, 23 kilometers (14.3 miles) of rope. Duration: 21 days.
1999
The Wall,13,000 Oil Barrels, Gasometer, Oberhausen, Germany,1998-99. An indoor installation. Height: 26 meters (85 feet). Width: 68 meters (223 feet). Depth: 7.23 meters (24 feet). Duration: 6 months.
2005The Gates, Central Park, New York City, 1979-2005 7,503 vinyl gates, with free-flowing nylon fabric panels, anchored to 15,006 steel bases on 37 kilometers (twenty-three miles) of walkways. Duration: 16 days.
2009 Jeanne Claude passes away at age 74
Here are some web sites to read more about Jean Claude and Christo.http://www.wolfgangvolz.com/seite5.htm
http://www.christojeanneclaude.net/index.shtml
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2009/11/19/GA2009111902946.html
Recently I wrapped some chandeliers at the shop I work in, perch. New Orleans, for an art exhibition. People loved them and asked how I came upon the idea, and I told them it was my very humble homage to Jeanne Claude and Christo. Sadly few knew who I was speaking of. So in the spirit of a vanishing breed, I continue to offer information for those who don't know some of the great artists that are dying out, to now have the joy of discovery.
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