Wrapping as a unique stylistic device to show the value of an object
As early as the end of the 1950s in Paris, Christo began wrapping objects such as bottles, chairs and cars – everyday objects that were not of any particular beauty or interest. Christo thus made it clear that any object can be of significance for art.
Christo sees art as poetry – a work of art should not follow a specific purpose or propaganda. “The wrapping shows the rough structures, abstracts the object”. In the consumer society of our time, Christo takes the opposite approach and draws attention to the actual value of the content by simply covering it up.
Important Projects
1961:
– Stacked oil drums and wrappings in the port of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
1962:
– The Iron Curtain – Wall made from oil drums, Rue Visconti, Paris, France
1964:
– Store Fronts, New York, USA
1968:
– 5.600-Cubicmeter-Package, 4. Documenta, Kassel, Germany
– Covered fountain and tower, Spoleto, Italy
– Wrapped Kunsthalle, Bern, Switzerland
1969:
– Wrapped Coast Line, Little Bay, Australia
– America-House Heidelberg, German-American Institute Heidelberg, Germany
– Wrapped Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA
1970:
– Wrapped Monument Vittorio Emanuele, Piazza del Duomo , Milano, Italy
– Wrapped Monument Leonardo da Vinci, Piazza della Scala, Milano, Italy
1971:
– Project “mon SCHAU”, Monschau, Germany
1972:
– Valley Curtain, Grand Hogback, Rifle, Colorado, USA
– Documenta 5, Kassel, Germany
1974:
– Ocean Front, Newport, Rhode Island, USA
– Wrapped Roman Wall Porta Pinciana, Rome, Italy
1976:
– Running Fence, Sonoma und Marin Counties, California, USA
1977:
– Documenta 6, Kassel, Germany
1978:
– Wrapped Walk Ways, Loose Park, Kansas City, USA
1983:
– Wrapped Islands, Biscayne Bay, Greater Miami, Florida, USA
1985:
– Wrapped Pont Neuf, Paris, France
1991:
– The Umbrellas, Japan-USA
1995:
– Wrapped Reichstag, Berlin, Germany
1998:
– Wrapped Trees, Fondation Beyeler and Berower Park, Riehen, Germany
1999:
– The Wall, 13,000 oil barrels, Gasometer Oberhausen, Oberhausen, Germany
2005:
– The Gates, Central Park, New York City, USA
2013:
– Big Air Package, Gasometer Oberhausen, Oberhausen, Germany
2016:
– The Floating Piers, Lago d´Iseo, Italy
2018:
– The Mastaba, London, United Kingdom
2021:
Christo, who was born Vladimirov Javacheff in Gabrovo, Bulgaria, in 1935, is one of the most prominent and popular artists of our time. Christo moved to Paris in 1958, where he joined the “Nouveau Réalisme” artists’ group and met his wife Jeanne-Claude. From 1964, the artist couple lived and worked as an inseparable artistic unit in New York and realized spectacular projects worldwide.
With their oversized wrappings of buildings and landscapes, assemblages of oil drums, installations and wrapped objects, Christo and Jeanne-Claude created a new awareness of reality and history in relation to an object or place.
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