Jeanne-Claude is gone
November 21, 2009 by Juergen Specht · 7 Comments
With deep sadness I heard that Jeanne-Claude, the wife and collaborator of the artist Christo, has died at 74.
Ingo Braun, Jeanne-Claude and Christo in Berlin, 1995
I was lucky to have met and worked with her and her husband on the “Wrapped Reichstag” Project in Berlin in 1995 and I liked her frank and realistic style. She once said:
Artists don’t retire. They die. That’s all. When they stop being able to create art, they die.
You will be missed, Jeanne-Claude!
That’s really sad news.
I had (totally by chance) the luck of being in new york when they opened “the gates” installation.
It was one of the most beautiful things i’ve ever seen…
M
This is very sad. I was in Berlin in 1995 for this- and watched how it brought people together from all over Germany, Europe, and the World. Thanks for posting this- I had not seen it earlier.
Mark
Oh, I had no idea you were there, too! I was closely working with Christo & Jeanne-Claude at the Wrapped Reichstag project and it changed my life…I will write it down soonish.
Here’s a link to a shot I took at the Reichstag Wrapped- can’t wait to see & hear about what you did with the project!
http://reichstag.fgjam.com/Reichstag_Wrapped.html
Great photo! I still haven’t found the time to write it all down. It’s a longer story, but soon, I promise!
As a fun of their concept of art, am very very sad as well…
dunno when it was, but they came to Ibaraki Pref. in ‘90 for a great show of umbrellas!!!
I was there twise, totally overwhelmed! and still keep a piece of cloth they use for that…
by the way, I feel like am dying as being stop doing art…
seems now will be the time to read/look over their books/videos again to get myself back.
thanks for the inspiration : )
Oh, nice! I was actually at the Californian side to see the yellow umbrellas. It was an amazing sight and made me a fan of Christo & Jeanne-Claude forever. I am pretty sure it was in 1991.
And come on, don’t stop creating! We have several of your paintings on our wall and still there is a lot of empty space! More, more, more!! :)