Christo and Jeanne-Claude 1935-2020 / 1935-2009

Christo and Jeanne-Claude were born in 1935 on exactly the same day, in Gabrovo, Bulgaria, and Casablanca, Morocco respectively. They met in Paris in 1958, and became both romantic and artistic partners, emigrating to New York in the mid-1960s.

Christo had already started to wrap found objects on a smaller scale, including pieces of furniture and cars. Jeanne-Claude encouraged bigger projects, on scales never previously seen, beginning with altering whole rooms and then eventually environments. As a result, their monumental architectural and land-based projects redefined the relationship between land art and fine art. 

Until 1994 Christo was the sole artist acknowledged on these projects, however they are now recognised as joint creators in all the outdoor installations made since 1961. Some of their most memorable projects include Wrapped Coast near Sydney (1968–69), The Pont Neuf Wrapped in Paris (1975–85), The London Mastaba on London's Serpentine Lake (2016–18), and most recently L'Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped, Paris (1961-2021).

Jeanne-Claude died in New York in 2009. Christo died in New York, in 2020.