Christo, the Bulgarian-born artist famous for his ambitious, ephemeral public art installations, died Sunday at his longtime home in New York City of natural causes, his office said in a statement. He was 84. Christo and his wife, Jeanne-Claude, worked together for 48 years until her death in 2009, mostly wrapping fabric around buildings, across landscapes, and over water.
"Christo lived his life to the fullest, not only dreaming up what seemed impossible but realizing it," the statement said. "Christo and Jeanne-Claude's artwork brought people together in shared experiences across the globe, and their work lives on in our hearts and memories."
Christo Vladimirov Javacheff was born in Gabrovo, Bulgaria, in 1934, on the same day as his future wife, Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon. He studied at the Fine Arts Academy in Sofia before moving to Prague, Vienna, Geneva, and finally Paris, where he met Jeanne-Claude in 1958. They were married in 1960, and their first major work involved covering oil barrels in fabric in Cologne's harbor.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Their other famous projects included surrounding 11 islands in Biscayne Bay, Miami, in pink "skirts" (1983); erecting 3,100 giant umbrellas in California and Japan (1991); "Wrapped Reichstag" (1995), where they covered Germany's parliament building in fabric; and "The Gates" in New York City's Central Park (2005). (You can view all their projects at their website.)
Christo and Jeanne-Claude paid for all of their installations by selling drawings, scale models, and other preparatory material for the projects, The Associated Press reports. "I like to be absolutely free, to be totally irrational with no justification for what I like to do," Christo said. "I will not give up one centimeter of my freedom for anything."
-
5 museum-grade cartoons about Trump's Smithsonian purgeCartoons Artists take on institutional rebranding, exhibit interpretation, and more
-
Settling the West Bank: a death knell for a Palestine state?In the Spotlight The reality on the ground is that the annexation of the West Bank is all but a done deal
-
Codeword: August 23, 2025The Week's daily codeword puzzle
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclubSpeed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's illsSpeed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, StalloneSpeed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's viewSpeed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
-
Charlamagne Tha God irks Trump with Epstein talkSpeed Read The radio host said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could help 'traditional conservatives' take back the Republican Party
-
CBS cancels Colbert's 'Late Show'Speed Read 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is ending next year
-
Shakespeare not an absent spouse, study proposesspeed read A letter fragment suggests that the Shakespeares lived together all along, says scholar Matthew Steggle
-
New Mexico to investigate death of Gene Hackman, wifespeed read The Oscar-winning actor and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead in their home with no signs of foul play
