Christo, an artist who famously wrapped landmarks, dies at 84

EPA

Christo, the Bulgarian-born artist, best known for wrapping buildings and famous landmarks in fabric or plastic, has died at his home in New York. He was 84.

He passed away from natural causes on Sunday, according to a statement posted on the artist's official Facebook page.

Christo, who always worked with his wife Jeanne-Claude, famously covered the Reichstag in Berlin and the Pont-Neuf in Paris with dreams of cloth.

His artworks "brought people together" around the world, the statement says.

"Christo lived his life to the fullest, not only dreaming up what seemed impossible but realizing it," it reads, adding that the couple's art "lives on in our hearts and memories".

Shakespeare told us 'all the world's a stage', Christo showed us all the world's an art gallery. The Bulgarian-born artist wasn't interested in the sterile white walls of the modern museum where objects exist apart from everyday life.

He wanted to turn everyday life into art, to make people look again and think again about their surroundings. He did this by way of intervention - either by wrapping a building such as the Reichstag in Berlin in blue material, or a section of the Australian coastline in one million square feet of fabric - in both cases turning cold, hard structures into sensuous, fragile sculptures.

He worked in collaboration with his wife Jeanne-Claude, whom he met in Paris in 1958. They made their first major outdoor work three years later in Germany, covering oil barrels stacked in Cologne harbor with the material. Jeanne-Claude died in 2009 leaving Christo to continue alone, which he did, with a plan to wrap the L'Arc de Triomphe in Paris next year - a project that will probably still be realized.

"We borrow space and create gentle disturbances for a few days," Christo once said.

Source: BBC

Publish : 2020-06-01 14:50:11

Give Your Comments