Christo

Christo - The Artist of Land Art’ Biography

Born in 1935 in Gabrovo, Christo is a world-renowned artist,

Of Bulgarian descent, Christo Javašev began studying art at the National Academy of Art in Sofia. He later refined his education in Prague and then moved to Vienna in 1957, where he attended the Academy of Fine Arts.

Arriving in Paris in 1958, he faced a problematic social condition: considered stateless, Christo had to earn a living as a street portraitist.

Surrounded by an ecstatic artistic climate, the artist Christo joined the new Nouveau Réalisme art movement founded by Pierre Restany. In the same year, he met what would become his wife and art partner, Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon.

Shortly after that, Christo began his celebrated Land Art work with the project Packages and Wrapped Objects, in collaboration with his wife Jeanne-Claude.

The artist Christo deprives them of their original function by packing everyday objects with fabric, rope, and string. He intends to preserve them intact for the future through a direct, immediate, and radical style and approach. Through this art project, Christo began to build an artistic career in which the transformation of everyday objects and places became a central theme. 

Some of the most majestic works that brought this artist worldwide fame were Wrapped Coast near Sydney (1968-69), Valley Curtain in Colorado (1970-72), Running Fence in California (1972-76), and Surrounded Islands in Miami (1980-83), The Pont Neuf Wrapped in Paris (1975-85), The Umbrellas in Japan and California (1984-91), Wrapped Reichstag in Berlin (1972-95), The Gates in New York's Central Park (1979-2005), The Floating Piers at Italy's Lake Iseo ( 2014-16), and The London Mastaba on London's Serpentine Lake (2016-18).

Christo and Jeanne-Claude's numerous artworks have transcended the boundaries of architecture, painting, and sculpture, blending the traditional concept of art with that of the everyday. 

Land Art

Land Art arose in the late 1960s in the United States; it involves the artist's intervention in the external environment, integrating the latter within the artwork. Bringing reflection on man's relationship with his environment, Land Art challenges the limits of traditional art - especially painting and sculpture. 

Thus, Land Art questions territoriality: leading us to wonder about the nature-culture relationship that has always characterized human life. The use of artificial materials in the environment, such as synthetic fabrics, gives rise to dynamic play between the naturalness of the landscape and the artificial element, and vice versa.

This type of art has revolutionized Western art, producing works of a transitory nature that have left an indelible mark on art history. Land Art has highlighted the impact that human intervention has and can have on the environment in which it lives.

Some of the major exponents of Land Art include Smithson, Oppenheim, Long, and Christo.

Iseo Lake - The Floating Piers

Working all over the world, from Europe to the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates, Christo has always thought of and designed specific installations based on the location in which he is to work.

In Italy, Christo has created as many as two land art works: the first in 1970, packing the Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II in Piazza Duomo and The Monument to Leonardo da Vinci in Piazza della Scala, using polyethylene and rope. The performance lasted two days.

The second intervention in Italy was also the penultimate in the artist Christo's career. It was the work The Floating Piers, or the construction of a floating bridge in Lake Iseo, which connected the mainland to Monte Isola. 

Taking inspiration from the projects that were never realized for technical reasons in 1970 in Argentina (2000 Metres Wrapped, Inflated Pier) and the 1996 project in the Gulf of Tokyo (The Daiba Projects Water Projects), Christo and Jeanne-Claude succeed in creating one of the most famous Land Art interventions in the history of art.

The Land Art installation altered for the first time in the history of this area.In 2016, from June 17 to July 3, many visitors were able to walk 3 km along this floating path, making themselves an integral part of the creation of this particular work.

The work that crossed the boundaries of art as much as those of construction engineering consisted of a platform of 200,000 cubes of totally recyclable high-density polyethylene, covered with a yellow-orange fabric that allowed people to literally walk on the waters of Lake Iseo. The fame of this work was also measured in the actual design phase, so much so that Harvard University published a case study of it. 

Christo: Quotes, Prices and Works for sale from Deodato Arte 

For those interested in knowing Christo works for sale quotations, Deodato Arte offers a selection of the artist's works for sale online and transparency in quotations.

If interested in knowing about Christo artist's quotations and prices, Deodato Arte Contemporary Art Gallery will be able to provide you with all the information. Do not hesitate to contact us by sending an e-mail to [email protected].