Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Over the River.

image National Gallery of Art

In 1972, it was a curtain suspended by cable across a canyon.They've also wrapped the Reichstag in fabric, run an 5.5-meter (18 ft) high fabric fence through 37 km (23 miles) of rolling farm country, and in a joint project between California and Japan placed umbrellas across the countryside. Large umbrellas: 6 meters tall, 8.66 meters in diameter.

Their signature work is the placement of 7500 gates in Central Park, New York City.

Nine or ten years ago I attended a public meeting in Longmont, where husband-and-wife team Christo and Jeanne-Claude unveiled to central Colorado their plans for their next major installation in our state.

The project to drape a section of the Arkansas River is moving forward.

The plan is to suspend nearly six miles of silvery fabric along sections of a 64 km (40 mile) distance.

The process for the Environmental Impact Statement, anticipated to take two years, began in Spring 2009. The entire congressional delegation of Colorado save one has written a letter of support of the project.

image Colorado Geology Overview

Through the sale of Christo's original works of art, the artists fund 100 percent of costs associated with the permitting process, manufacturing, installation and removal of Over The River. The temporary work of art will be created without public subsidy or taxpayer support, and the artists do not accept viewing fees, sponsorships or outside investments of any kind.

image Wolfgang Volz.

11.19.2009

Too late I notice an article in the Denver Post about a showing of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's work, scheduled for October 2009. I was prompted to go searching by sad news today that Jeanne-Claude has died of complications of a brain aneursym.