Christo and Jeanne-Claude
Christo (born as Christo Vladimirov Javacheff, Bulgarian: Христо Явашев) and Jeanne-Claude (born as Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon) are a married couple who create environmental works of art. Their works include the wrapping of the Reichstag in Berlin and the Pont-Neuf bridge in Paris, the 24-mile-long artwork called Running Fence in Sonoma and Marin counties in California, and The Gates in New York City's Central Park.
Coincidentally Christo and Jeanne-Claude were born on the same date, 13 June 1935, and allegedly in the same hour. They first met in October, 1958.
Although their work is visually impressive and often controversial as a result of its scale, the artists have repeatedly denied that their projects contain any deeper meaning than their immediate aesthetic. The purpose of their art, they contend, is simply to create works of art or joy and beauty and to create new ways of seeing familiar landscapes. Art critic David Bourdon has described Christo's wrappings as a "revelation through concealment."[1]To his critics Christo replies, "I am an artist, and I have to have courage ... Do you know that I don't have any artworks that exist? They all go away when they're finished. Only the preparatory drawings, and collages are left, giving my works an almost legendary character. I think it takes much greater courage to create things to be gone than to create things that will remain."
‘This exhibition takes as its point of departure the commercial color chart, an item that openly declares the status of color as mass-produced and standardized. Midway through the 20th century, long-held convictions regarding the spiritual or emotional power of particular colors gave way to the embrace of color as an ordinary commodity. At the same time, many artists rejected traditional artistic pedagogy about correct relationships between colors and instead adopted aesthetic approaches that relied on chance, ready-made sources, or arbitrary systems. The Romantic quest for personal expression, so often achieved through color, instead became Andy Warhol’s “I want to be a machine.” The artistry of mixing pigments was eclipsed by Frank Stella’s “Straight out of the can; it can’t get better than that.”'
here is the official (beautifully built) site hosted by the MoMa
