Not a whole lot of people knew how important her contribution was to Christo's mind-blowing work. The New York Times reports the passing of Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon, married to Christo since 1958.
At some point in their collaboration, they chose to brand the name Christo, and for a while Jeanne-Claude didn't get proper recognition for her collaboration in Christo's early work. Of course, by the time masterpieces such as The Gates were inaugurated in Central Park in February 2005, her name would resonate along that of Christo.
The work that most impressed me was the wrapping of the Pont Neuf in the mid-80s.
On September 22, 1985, a group of 300 professional workers completed the temporary work of art The Pont Neuf Wrapped. They had deployed 40,876 square meters (454,178 square feet) of woven polyamide fabric, silky in appearance and golden sandstone in color, covering:
The sides and vaults of the twelve arches, without hindering river traffic.
The parapets down to the ground.
The sidewalks and curbs (pedestrians walked on the fabric)
All the street lamps on both sides of the bridge.
The vertical part of the embankment of the western tip of the Ile de la Cité.
The esplanade of the "Vert-Galant".
The fabric was restrained by 13,076 meters (42,900 feet) of rope and secured by 12.1 metric tons (11.8 long tons) of steel chains encircling the base of each tower, 1 meter (3.3 feet ) underwater.
I remember reading an interview with Jeanne Claude as she responded to the perennial question "Why?" Her answer? "Because we think it will be beautiful." Plenty convincing to me.
No comments:
Post a Comment