¡°All our work is about freedom¡± The universe of Christo and Jeanne-Claude
The work of the artist couple Christo (born 1935) and Jeanne-Claude (1935?2009) resists categorization. It is a hybrid of art, urban planning, architecture, and engineering, but above all an aesthetic uniquely their own: surreal and ethereal environmental interventions that have graced monuments, public parks, and centers of power alike.
This compact book spans the complete career of the couple who were born on the very same day, met in Paris, fell in love, and became a creative team like no other. With rich illustration, it spans Christo and Jeanne-Claude¡¯s earliest projects in the 1950s right through to The Floating Piers, to be installed at Lake Iseo, Italy, in 2016. The book celebrates all of the couple¡¯s most famous environmental interventions, such as The Gates in New York¡¯s Central Park and the Wrapped Reichstag in Berlin, while also featuring early drawings and family photos unknown to the wider public.
About the series: Each book in TASCHEN¡¯s Basic Art series features:
a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance
a concise biography
approximately 100 illustrations with explanatory captions
Introduction
"Miserable autumn weekends"
Out of Bulgaria
"Revelation through concealment"
Paris
"Tributes to artistic freedom"
Store Fronts, Air Packages, Wrapped Museums
"The quintessential artists of their time"
Wrapped Coast, Valley Curtain, Running Fence
"The only natural choice"
Surrounded Islands, The Pont Neuf Wrapped, The Umbrellas
"Our work is about freedom"
Wrapped Reichstag, Wrapped Trees, The Wall
"A golden ceiling, a golden river"
The Gates
"This is reality"
Work in progress
Christo and Jeanne-Claude
Chronology