Check out their site: http://www.christojeanneclaude.net/wc.shtml, with some interesting facts on their Wrapped Coast project from the 60s.
Check out the excerpt from their Biography on the site:
Eye-level:
To return to the question of how you finance your work, it’s very unusual in the art world and very impressive. Is it done only because you want to avoid any entanglements, or do you see the process of moving from the software to the hardware as an integral part of your art? In other words, if you were independently wealthy, would you just go out and do the installations and not bother with the selling of the drawings?
Christo:
That’s a very good question and we have never thought of it, because (laughter) we have never been independently wealthy and so we have no idea. But the drawings are not created only to be sold. The drawings are extremely important to clarify our ideas and to crystallize the idea. And for every project, because it takes years, you can see the early drawings and collages as just a simple, vague idea, and through the years and through the negotiations of getting the permit, you see that every detail is now clarified.
Jeanne-Claude:
We have been working with the engineers, we know the site by heart, and the last drawings, which are done just before completion, because Christo never does preparatory drawings after a project is completed, then you can see that it’s unbelievable! It almost looks like we’ve seen a photo of the project. It’s so perfect! And this is how our engineers can build it, because finally, its neat and clear and crystallized, exactly what it will look like.
Eye-level:
Your work by its nature draws the public into the process before it is built. They visualize it in terms of why they support it or why they oppose it. How does that interaction with the public shape your work?
Jeanne-Claude:
It doesn’t shape the work. It only shapes whether we get the permit, or not. It doesn’t shape the work itself because we have never changed an idea, we have only crystallized it and made it clearer. Our work is not just painting or just sculpture, even though it has elements or painting and sculpture, but it’s also architecture, environmental planning, all these things. Nobody has ever discussed a painting before the painter has painted it. Nobody has ever discussed a sculpture before the sculptor has sculpted it. But everybody discusses a projected new airport, new highway, new bridge, before they are created. Our work encompasses all these elements.
Eye-level:
You are viewed as controversial artists. What do you see as the source of that controversy?
Jeanne-Claude:
This is a great compliment because we are 66 years old and to be still today called controversial makes us feel so young. It’s marvelous! (laughter) Imagine, they call us avant garde and controversial after 44 years of work. It’s fabulous! Controversial is because we never do twice the same work. We will never wrap a bridge again as we did in 1985 in Paris when we wrapped the Pont Neuf, the 400 years old bridge. We will never wrap a bridge again. We will never build Umbrellas again. We will never wrap a parliament again. We will never do a Valley Curtain or a Running Fence. We will never surround any islands, as we did in Florida in 1983, when we surrounded 11 islands with pink floating fabric in Biscayne Bay, Miami, Florida. We will never do again the same.
Christo:
Therefore, when we arrive in a place and talk to new people about a new image, it is very hard for them to visualize it. That’s where the drawings are very important, because at least we can show a projection of what we believe it will look like. We tell them that we believe it will be beautiful because that is our specialty, we only create joy and beauty. We have never done a sad work. Through the drawings, we hope a majority will be able to visualize it.
If, in Colorado today, were we to tell the people: you have a beautiful bridge. May we please wrap it? Look at this book. It’s 400 pages, showing you how beautiful the bridge in Paris looked. Probably everybody would say, “Oh! That is magnificent. Yes, you may wrap our bridge.” But we have no wish to wrap again a bridge. Therefore we have to go over the fact that all human beings are afraid by what is new. It is our work to convince them that they will enjoy it, and even if they don’t, to allow us just for 14 days to create that work of art.
To return to the question of how you finance your work, it’s very unusual in the art world and very impressive. Is it done only because you want to avoid any entanglements, or do you see the process of moving from the software to the hardware as an integral part of your art? In other words, if you were independently wealthy, would you just go out and do the installations and not bother with the selling of the drawings?
Christo:
That’s a very good question and we have never thought of it, because (laughter) we have never been independently wealthy and so we have no idea. But the drawings are not created only to be sold. The drawings are extremely important to clarify our ideas and to crystallize the idea. And for every project, because it takes years, you can see the early drawings and collages as just a simple, vague idea, and through the years and through the negotiations of getting the permit, you see that every detail is now clarified.
Jeanne-Claude:
We have been working with the engineers, we know the site by heart, and the last drawings, which are done just before completion, because Christo never does preparatory drawings after a project is completed, then you can see that it’s unbelievable! It almost looks like we’ve seen a photo of the project. It’s so perfect! And this is how our engineers can build it, because finally, its neat and clear and crystallized, exactly what it will look like.
Eye-level:
Your work by its nature draws the public into the process before it is built. They visualize it in terms of why they support it or why they oppose it. How does that interaction with the public shape your work?
Jeanne-Claude:
It doesn’t shape the work. It only shapes whether we get the permit, or not. It doesn’t shape the work itself because we have never changed an idea, we have only crystallized it and made it clearer. Our work is not just painting or just sculpture, even though it has elements or painting and sculpture, but it’s also architecture, environmental planning, all these things. Nobody has ever discussed a painting before the painter has painted it. Nobody has ever discussed a sculpture before the sculptor has sculpted it. But everybody discusses a projected new airport, new highway, new bridge, before they are created. Our work encompasses all these elements.
Eye-level:
You are viewed as controversial artists. What do you see as the source of that controversy?
Jeanne-Claude:
This is a great compliment because we are 66 years old and to be still today called controversial makes us feel so young. It’s marvelous! (laughter) Imagine, they call us avant garde and controversial after 44 years of work. It’s fabulous! Controversial is because we never do twice the same work. We will never wrap a bridge again as we did in 1985 in Paris when we wrapped the Pont Neuf, the 400 years old bridge. We will never wrap a bridge again. We will never build Umbrellas again. We will never wrap a parliament again. We will never do a Valley Curtain or a Running Fence. We will never surround any islands, as we did in Florida in 1983, when we surrounded 11 islands with pink floating fabric in Biscayne Bay, Miami, Florida. We will never do again the same.
Christo:
Therefore, when we arrive in a place and talk to new people about a new image, it is very hard for them to visualize it. That’s where the drawings are very important, because at least we can show a projection of what we believe it will look like. We tell them that we believe it will be beautiful because that is our specialty, we only create joy and beauty. We have never done a sad work. Through the drawings, we hope a majority will be able to visualize it.
If, in Colorado today, were we to tell the people: you have a beautiful bridge. May we please wrap it? Look at this book. It’s 400 pages, showing you how beautiful the bridge in Paris looked. Probably everybody would say, “Oh! That is magnificent. Yes, you may wrap our bridge.” But we have no wish to wrap again a bridge. Therefore we have to go over the fact that all human beings are afraid by what is new. It is our work to convince them that they will enjoy it, and even if they don’t, to allow us just for 14 days to create that work of art.
Proof that all the drawings you do before assignments are not for nothing :D
Please answer the following questions on YOUR blog (be sure to become a follower of mine for a grade). Each question is worth 10 points.
1. Christo and Jeanne-Claude's work is atypical. How would you describe this artwork to someone? Remember to use your elements and principles of art, as well as adjectives to answer.
2. In your own words, what is "Wrapped Coast" about? What was the purpose of creating such a monumental work?
3. Think about an environmental problem in Singapore. Where could you create a wrapped installation to bring awareness to this issue? Describe what it would look like, what it would be made out of, where it would be, what problem you are addressing, and how your artwork brings attention to this issue.
