Forty years ago the couple enfolded the Pont Neuf, one of Paris’s most beloved bridges, in a silky, sandstone-colored material for “The Pont Neuf Wrapped.”
Ten years later, in 1995, came “Wrapped Reichstag,” when they swathed the parliament building in Berlin with a shiny, aluminum-like material.
And ten years after that was “The Gates” in New York’s Central Park, which saw miles of steel gates hung with saffron-colored nylon fabric.
The giant works are long gone. But the three cities will hold exhibits marking their anniversaries — as well as what would have been both Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s 90th birthdays — this year.
Bulgarian-born Christo — full name Christo Vladimirov Javacheff — died in 2020, 11 years after his French wife Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon passed away.
The artists were only interested in seeing the projects once they were done and “when they see it, for them, two weeks is enough,” said their nephew Vladimir Yavachev.
He recalled a quote from then New York mayor Michael Bloomberg about “The Gates”: “If you hate it, it’s temporary. If you love it, it’s still temporary.”
