Christo & Jeanne-Claude

For more than 50 years the two artists, Christo (1935–2020) and Jeanne–Claude (1935–2009) worked together. Their gigantic and astounding art projects involving wrappings of both urban and natural landmarks have made them world–famous. They have mastered the creative process from idea to implementation and documentation.

The couple met as early as 1958 in Paris, where Christo had come into contact with Western European art in the form of Nouveau Réalisme. They settled permanently in New York in 1964 and used the city as a reference point for the art projects that took them all across the world. That same year Christo started their iconic series ‘Store Front’, which used windows and doors covered with paper or draped in fabric to create architectural scultpures. Unlike earlier works, this series redefined the interior/exterior relationship. Their first three Store Fronts were executed for exhibitions in New York, Paris and Toulouse. After that, ‘Orange Store Front’ was created and then ‘Yellow Store Front’. For these projects, Christo used old wooden panels, doors and fixtures from demolition sites in Lower Manhattan, which gave the pieces a patinated look. The major art project ‘Corridor Store Front’ was shown at the international exhibition Documenta 4 in Kassel, Germany, 1968. The installation stretched over an area of 140 square meters. Before these projects were installed in real life, the artworks created in the Christo studio are considered the most important steps in his creative process. They are of great value as documentation of the projects’ artistic development and should be considered as separate works.

‘Store Front (Project)’ from 1964, included in this auction, is one of the central studies for the Store Front series. It has been in the Aronowitsch family since the well–established gallery owner William Aronowitsch bought the piece directly from Christo in the late 1960s, and has since been in his private collection. The artwork was shown at Galerie Aronowitsch in Stockholm 1974 at the exhibition ‘Christo: Projects and Studies for Store Fronts 1964–65 and Gallery Projects 1974’. Although neither Christo nor Jeanne–Claude are sadly alive today, their final monumental installation is currently making headlines all over the world – a posthumous wrapping of the triumphal arch in Paris, ‘L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped’. Christo had been fascinated by the triumphal arch since the first time he came to Paris and rented a room nearby. The monument was wrapped for 16 days, from September 18 to October 3, 2021, as a final homage to the artist couple.