Christo

Born Christo Vladimirov Javacheff on June 13, 1935 in Gabrovo, Bulgaria, the artist met his wife Jeanne-Claude Marie Denat while living in Paris. She was born on the exact same day as her husband, June 13, 1935, in Casablanca, Morocco, Christo studied at the National Academy of Art in Sofia. Like his contemporary Arman, Christo used smaller found objects in his earlier works, wrapping cars or furniture, and gradually advanced to larger scale once he began to collaborate with Jeanne-Claude. The pair emigrated to the United States in 1964, where they worked creating store fronts to help fund their early artistic collaborations. Over the following decades, the collaborators gained a reputation through international projects and participation in documentaries. Jeanne-Claude died on November 18, 2009 in New York, NY and Christo passed away on May 31, 2020 also in New York, NY. Their works are held in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Musée d’art modern et d’art contemporain in Nice, and the Cleveland Museum of Art, among others. [artnet]