Practitioner research: Christo & Jeanne Claude

Jeanne Caude and Christo

Christo

Christo was born in Gabrovo, Bulgaria. His father, Vladimir Yavachev, was a scientist, and his mother, Tsveta Dimitrova, born in Macedonia, was the secretary at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia. Professors from the Academy who visited his family observed Christo's artistic talent while he was still of a very young age.

Christo studied art at the Sofia Academy from 1953 to 1956, and went to Prague, Czechoslovakia until 1957, when he left for West by bribing a railway official and stowing away with several other individuals onboard a train transporting medicine and medical supplies to Austria.

Christo quickly settled in Vienna, and enrolled at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. After only one semester there, he traveled to Geneva and moved to Paris in 1958. As a result of his flight, he lost his Bulgarian citizenship and became a stateless person. His life in Paris was characterized by financial hardship and social isolation, which was worsened by his difficulty learning the French language. He earned money by painting portraits, which he likened to prostitution and signed with his family name "Javachef" while his early works were signed "Christo".

Jeanne Claude

Jeanne-Claude was born in Casablanca, Morocco where her French military father was stationed. Her mother, Précilda, was 17 when she married Jeanne-Claude's father, Major Léon Denat. Précilda and Léon Denat divorced shortly after Jeanne-Claude was born, and Précilda remarried three times. Jeanne-Claude earned a baccalaureate in Latin and philosophy in 1952 from the University of Tunis
During World War II, Jeanne-Claude lived with her father's family while her mother fought in the French Resistance. In 1946, Précilda married the influential General Jacques de Guillebon. The family lived in Berne from 1948 to 1951 then in Tunisia from 1952 to 1957, when they returned to Paris.

Christo & Jeanne Claude

Christo and Jeanne-Claude were born on the same date. They first met in Paris in October 1958. Their works were credited to just "Christo" until 1994 when the outdoor works and large indoor installations were retroactively credited to "Christo and Jeanne-Claude". They flew in separate planes: in case one crashed, the other could continue their work.


Jeanne-Claude died, aged 74, on November 18, 2009, from complications of a brain aneurysm.

Although their work is visually impressive and often controversial because it is so big, the artists have repeatedly denied that their projects contain any deeper meaning than what the viewer sees.

The purpose of their art is 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." 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."



One piece of work that I like in particular was called wrapped trees. The project was started on the 13th of November 1998 in Fondation Beyeler and Berower Park in Riehen, Switzerland. 178 trees were wrapped with 55000 square meters of woven polyester fabric, which is used every winter in Japan to protect the trees from frost and heavy snow. They also used 14.35 meters of rope; it was completed on November the 22nd.
The height of the trees varied from 1 meter to 25 meters. As they have always done, Christo and Jeanne-Claude have paid the expenses of the project themselves through the sale of original works to museums, private collectors and galleries. They do not accept sponsorship of any kind.

Christo and Jeanne Claude worked with trees for many years and the “Wrapped Trees” in Riehen were the result of 32 years of effort. I think the following statement is the message or idea that Christo and Jeanne Claude were trying to portray.

Statement by the artists

“The temporality of a work of art creates a feeling of fragility, vulnerability and an urgency to be seen, as well as a presence of the missing, because we know it will be gone tomorrow.

The quality of love and tenderness that human beings have towards what will not last - for instance the love and tenderness we have for childhood and our lives - is a quality we want to give to our work as an additional aesthetic quality.”

To me Christo and Jeanne Claude’s artwork is all about bringing people together; wherever they work they make their art not just something interesting to look at but a once in a lifetime experience for the local people as they also get to partake in the creation. All of the materials used are recycled and put to use in other ways or given to the people involved.

I think Christo and Jeanne Claude’s work has a link to mine in the way that I am working with recycled materials and trying to bring people together to work together in building something new. They also bring people together with their work and then recycle or reuse the materials they work with. Their work is also always temporary as is mine.

I think the Wrapped Trees give off a wonderful variation of colour and there are many beautiful shades and tones when the sunlight hits the translucent materials. It makes the atmosphere around the park really warm and happy. The shadows inside the wrapping also create many interesting and intricate lines which create beautiful patterns at different times of the day.