Christo and Jeanne-Claude, TASCHEN

This limited Art Edition, complete with print and swatch of the project fabric, traces the project story, start to finish.

• Christo (Bulgarian, 1935–2020).
• Jeanne-Claude (Moroccan, 1935–2009).
• Wolfgang Volz (German, b. 1948).
• Köln: Taschen, 1998.
• 136 pages.
• Hardcover.
• Edition of 1,000.
• Signed by Christo and Jeanne-Claude and Wolfgang Volz.
• Presented in slip case with piece of fabric and print.

The couple best known for their stunning site-specific installations reimagined the world’s monuments, requiring decades of coordination with public officials and environmentalists while brainstorming technical solutions.

Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon and Christo Javacheff were born on the same day in 1935, but in contrasting circumstances. While Jeanne-Claude grew up in Morocco, Christo studied art before fleeing Communist Bulgaria. The two met when Christo was commissioned to paint a portrait of Jeanne-Claude’s mother. While in Paris, they began to concept ephemeral environmental pieces such as stacking oil cans in an alley as a comment on the Berlin Wall (The Iron Curtain).

Moving to New York, they continued to plan their international installations, which would take years to get approval as well as figure out the technical requirements to wrap public buildings in swaths of fabric. Christo sold the sketches and studies of his previous work in order to fund their masterpieces such as The Pont Neuf Wrapped, The Gates in Central Park and Wrapped Reichstag. Claiming that they did the work for no other reason than joy itself, Christo + Jeanne-Claude’s visually stunning accomplishments had a beginning, middle and end, which now can only be experienced through books and documentaries detailing their artistry.