For over 50 years, the two artists Christo (1935-2020) and Jeanne-Claude (1935-2009) worked together. Their gigantic and astonishing art projects of urban and landscape elements made them world famous. They mastered the entire creative process from conception and documentation to realization.
Through their temporary transformations, Christo and Jeanne-Claude wanted to redefine objects, buildings and landscapes as art, while at the same time expressing a change in the meaning and space of art. To obtain permission to carry out their white wrapping of the Pont-Neuf in Paris, Christo and Jeanne-Claude visited the shops located at the foot of the bridge and convinced the shop owners that the project would be good for their business. At the same time, Christo encouraged the shop owners to write to the then Mayor Jacques Chirac to express their support for the project. When the Pont-Neuf was finally wrapped up in 1985 - after a long period of negotiation and planning (including a 'trial wrap' of another bridge to test its feasibility in practice) - it abruptly changed the face of the city, replacing the historic bridge with a completely alien shape. Christo and Jeanne-Claude's artistic work is not primarily driven by a desire to make art objects, but also by a need to artistically intervene in a place and create a dialog with its history.
The temporary installations that make up the works themselves are the result of years of preparation, with the methodology and creative process captured in the sketches, photographs and collages that have become works of art in their own right. They all have their own value and document the artistic development of the project. The work in the auction “The Pont Neuf, Wrapped (Project for Paris)” from 1980 is one such original work.
The temporary work was funded entirely by the artists themselves and ran from 1975 to 1985. Wrapping the Pont-Neuf continued this tradition of successive metamorphoses through a new sculptural dimension, transforming it, for 14 days in September 1985, into a work of art. Ropes held down the fabric against the metal, maintaining the main forms, while emphasizing the proportions and details of the Pont-Neuf, which has united the left and right banks and the Île de la Cité, the heart of Paris, for over 400 years.