Biography from AskART:
| An environmental installation artist and painter of architectural
landscape drawings, Christo has become known for "wrapping" famous
buildings and geographical landmarks with plastic and woven-fabric
sheets. His projects, usually with the assistance of his wife and
dealer Jeanne-Claude, include wrappings of the "Berne Kunsthalee" in
1968, a coastline area in Australia; the Reichstag, in Berlin; and the
Pont Neuf in Paris. In California, he built a running fence 18
feet high and 24.5 miles long and in Japan and California, created a
running series of 3,100 umbrellas.
In February 2005, the Christos oversaw the installation of one of their most attention-getting endeavors, The Gates, Central Park, New York, 1979-2005.
Opening February 11 and lasting sixteen days, it was the biggest art
project in the history of New York City. Seventy-five hundred
frames, sixteen feet high, were placed at intervals along 23 miles of
footpaths in the park. Suspended from the frames were orange
tinted fabric banners, intended to convey a "splash of sunrise" and
what Javacheff Christo described as "a visual golden river". But
declining to say much about the project, the artist said: "This project
is not involving talk. It's a real, physical space. It's not necessary
to talk. You spend time, you experience the project". (Tribune)
Javacheff
Christo was born in Gabrovo, Bulgaria, on June 13, 1935, the same day
as his wife, Jeanne-Claude. He studied at the Fine Arts Academy in
Sofia from 1952 to 1956, and then worked at the Burian Theatre in
Prague in 1956. He did further study in Vienna in 1957, and the
following year went to Paris where he began creating wrapped, packaged
objects. He and his wife have lived primarily in New York City,
although they travel frequently.
They do not use their last
name, Javacheff, although their son Cyril took the last name of
Christo. According to Bedford McIntosh, "In the past few years
they have come to refer to themselves as the 'artists Christo and
Jeanne-Claude,' recognizing her critical role in the projects. The
titles on their more recent projects reflect this."
Funding for the site-specific works come from the sale of preparatory drawings, documents, and sculptures.
Sources include:
Matthew Baigell, Dictionary of American Art
Bedford McIntosh, Scottsdale Tribune, February 13, 2005, A17
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Javacheff Christo is also mentioned in these AskART essays:
Modernism
Sculptors
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