I first met Jeanne-Claude in 1983, when she and her husband, the artist Christo, were doing their Surrounded Islands project in Biscayne Bay in Miami. The couple involved the entire community in their huge projects—because they had to in order to make them happen and because collaboration with the community was part of the art itself.
All Christo photos by Frank Beacham
The last installation I experienced by the couple was in 2005, when they installed 7,503 vinyl gates with saffron-colored nylon panels in Central Park. Each day, the panels looked different—due to the weather conditions and the direction of the light. When it snowed that February, the panels took on a transcendent beauty I’ll never forget.
I was very sad to learn that Jeanne-Claude, at 74, has died. Though Christo’s name is better known, everyone that knew the team understood that Jeanne-Claude was an equal partner. The single name was for easier branding. The couple met in 1958 and three years later did their first project of oil drums and rolls of industrial paper wrapped in tarpauli on the docks in Cologne, Germany.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s work always had critics. On virtually every project, they were accused of wasting money, creating environmentally unsound works and doing stunts without intellectual content. In every case, I think the critics were wrong. Very wrong.
The couple’s projects were always meant to be temporary and to leave a lasting impression on those who participated in their creation. Jeanne-Claude called it “the quality of love and tenderness that we human beings have for what does not last.”
I will never forget their works, just as I always remember seeing a great painting or other work of art. All we humans have is memory, anyway. “We want to create works of art of joy and beauty, which we will build because we believe it will be beautiful,” Jeanne-Claude once said. “The only way to see it is to build it. Like every artist, every true artist, we create them for us.”
RIP, Jeanne-Claude!
