All Wrapped Up

[Guy Profumo]

Conceptual artist Christo has died aged 84


https://www.theguardian.com/artandde...g-dies-aged-84

[Nefertiti2]

[Various Artist]

That's a great little nod from Schulz there!


RIP Christo. Sad news but he leaves a remarkable singular artistic legacy – though it should be noted, he and his wife Jeanne-Claude formed an inseparable creative double-act. I'll always associate them with the astonishing 'Surrounded Islands', where they outlined an island chain in Miami's Biscayne bay in flamingo-pink plastic, as I vividly recall seeing it a kid in the Guinness books where it must've been the world record for largest artwork:

[ad hoc]

I saw a documentary (it may have been a BBC one) about their project on the Serpentine, but incorporating their career as a whole. The two of them were an utterly amazing couple and couple of artists (and business people too)

[Guy Profumo]

I was in Berlin when they wrapped the Reichstag.

Very impressive it was too.

[Guy Profumo]

According to received wisdom Helmut Kohl was supposed to have said "it'll happen over my dead body"

Apparently everyone was still waiting for him to keep his side of the bargain.

[Amor de Cosmos]

They certainly pushed some people's buttons. I think it was their business acumen that riled people as much as their work. Art academics seemed particularly baffled and annoyed by their success. He'll be missed, though I expect Jeanne-Claude will continue their work in some way.

[ad hoc]

She's already dead though

[Amor de Cosmos]

She's already dead though

Shit, I didn't know that! [gulp]

[ad hoc]

In 2009

(which sounds like yesterday but turns out to be 11 years)

[Amor de Cosmos]

I think I'd actually forgotten. Which is all too common these days.

[Benjm]

I like their work and the capacity to annoy sort of adds to it, if anything. Photographs of the big pieces often have a dream like quality, similar to some of Storm Thorgerson's album art but with the added wow factor of realising that it is real rather than a studio manipulation, like watching Cleopatra instead of Gladiator. That said, when looking at photos of 2018's Mastaba on the Serpentine, it has a peculiar tendency to look like a computer generated impression of itself. In life it was much more solid (and less bright, depending upon the London weather).