Christo and Jeanne-Claude

CHRISTO (Bulgaria, 1935-USA, 2020); JEANNE CLAUDE (Morocco, 1935-USA, 2009).
"Big Air Package, Project for Gasometer Oberhausen, Gerrmany" (Over the River, Arkansas River, Colorado), 1992.
Offset print on cardboard.
Numbered and hand signed by Christo.
Measurements: 10 x 15 cm (sheet); 24 x 28 x 2 cm (frame).

This work relates to Christo and Jeanne-Claude's famous "wrapping" projects, monumental interventions in which large textile surfaces temporarily transformed landscapes or architectural structures. In this case, the project shows a fabric suspended over the course of the river, extending the concept of wrapping into a direct intervention in the natural landscape, where the fabric acts as an ephemeral architecture that modifies the perception of the environment.

Collages and drawings such as this one were fundamental to their creative process and were also the works through which the artists financed their major projects, and therefore have an essential artistic and documentary value within their production.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude formed one of the most influential artistic couples in contemporary art. Since the 1960s they developed large-scale projects based on the use of fabrics to wrap or transform buildings, landscapes and public spaces. Among their best known interventions are Wrapped Coast (1969), Running Fence (1976), Wrapped Reichstag (1995) or The Gates in Central Park (2005). His projects, always temporary and self-financed, redefined the relationship between art, landscape and architecture.