Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Urban Projects

For the first time, a comprehensive account of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s urban projects is provided in this book. It presents preparatory drawings, collages and models for many little-known works from the artists’ early careers, some of which were never carried out, such as: the planned wrapping of several New York City skyscrapers, as well as the spectacular large-scale projects of later years: as the wrapping of the Pont Neuf bridge in Paris in 1985; the wrapping of the Reichstag building in Berlin in 1995 and the 2005 installation The Gates in New York’s Central Park.

In two detailed essays the authors of the book explore Christo’s extraordinary talent for drawing and investigate the artists’ ambivalent perspective on urban space, which oscillates between a powerful critique of the city’s impersonal modernism and a tribute to the liberal, democratic use of urban areas.