Christo and Jeanne-Claude

My introduction to the work of Christo and Jeanne-Claude came during the first of my many visits to Telegramme prints. On the East wall of Telegramme’s small but well adorned store, hung a print of a conceptual drawing for The Gates, a project Christo and Jeanne-Claude started  in 1979 and fully realized in 2005. I was immediately struck by the scale of what the drawing proposed to me, then the colours captured me, and I envisioned myself amidst the array of orange shown sailing through the barren trees of New York city in february. The print, although lovely, was well beyond my means. 

Christo and Jeanne-Claude are two remarkable artists. Remarkable on one hand, because of the sheer scale of their works, not only in physical size, but in terms of coordinative effort. Remarkable on the other hand, because of the beauty of their work, its relationship with its environment, and the fact that any fundraising for these projects (and these projects do need funds) is done by the artists themselves, without sponser, by selling conceptual drawings and other art done by Christo. 

Christo and Jeanne-Claude expressly ask that no images from their website be reproduced without permission, but they have lots of interesting stuff to view at their site. Check out the Common Errors section to get a feel for their fascinating convictions, and visit their Works in Progress section to see what they’re currently up to.