Christo and Jeanne-Claude

CHRISTO (Bulgaria, 1935–2020) and JEANNE CLAUDE DE GUILLEBON (Morocco, 1935 – United States, 2009).
“Over the River, Project for the Arkansas River, State of Colorado.”
Offset lithograph.
Hand-signed.
Includes edition information.
Measurements: 90 x 68 cm.

“Over the River, Project for the Arkansas River, State of Colorado” got underway in 1992, when Christo, Jeanne-Claude, and their entire team traveled 22,530 km (or 14,000 miles) in search of the perfect site for the project. During those trips, they surveyed 89 rivers across a total of 7 states, identifying 6 potential sites suitable for their ambitious project. After revisiting all 6 locations in the summer of 1996, the Arkansas River in Colorado was selected as the ideal site. The final plan included 9.5 kilometers of luminous silver fabric panels suspended over the water in eight distinct sections along a 67.6-kilometer stretch of the Arkansas River, between Canyon City and Salida in south-central Colorado. On the bureaucratic front, Christo received all the necessary federal, state, and local permits to carry out *Over The River* in 2011, when the U.S. Department of the Interior announced its Record of Decision. However, in 2012, a local group opposed to this temporary artwork filed lawsuits against Colorado State Parks in state court and against the U.S. federal government’s Bureau of Land Management in U.S. federal court. In January 2017, after pursuing the project for 20 years and enduring five years of legal battles, Christo decided to set it aside and devote all his energy, time, and resources to the creation of *The Mastaba* in the United Arab Emirates.

A renowned artistic duo of the late 20th century, Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s wrapped objects are among the most extreme examples of conceptual art. Christo Valdimirov Javacheff studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia from 1952 to 1956, and 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. His life in Paris was marked by financial hardship and social isolation, which was exacerbated by his difficulty in learning French. He earned money by painting portraits, which he compared to prostitution. In January 1958, Christo created his first “wrapped art” piece; he covered an empty paint can with a canvas soaked in acrylic paint. Christo and Jeanne-Claude met in Paris in November 1958. In 1961, he undertook what would be his first project involving large-scale objects, wrapping barrels in the port of Cologne. In 1962, Christo and Jeanne-Claude undertook their first monumental project, “Rideau de fer,” as a statement against the Berlin Wall. The work consisted of blocking Visconti Street, located along the river, with oil barrels. Although Christo was simultaneously holding his first gallery exhibition, it was the Visconti project that brought him to prominence in Paris. In 1964, the couple settled in New York. In 1968, they participated in Documenta 4 in Kassel, and in 1969, they undertook one of their most famous projects: wrapping the coastline of Little Bay in Sydney, Australia. Since then, they have carried out numerous large-scale projects around the world, including “Running Fence” and “Wrapped Walkways” in the United States, “Pont Neuf” in Paris, “Umbrellas” in the United States and Japan, and the Reichstag building in Germany.