Yesterday, May 31, the artist Christo Vladimirov Javacheff, better known as Christo, passed away in his home in New York City at the age of 84. Christo, along with his late wife and partner, Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon, spent decades planning and building environmental artwork around the world, on massive scales: wrapping the German Reichstag building in fabric, placing thousands of colorful gates on the pathways of New York’s Central Park, surrounding entire islands with floating fabric in Florida, and much more. Below, images of some of the installations created by Christo and Jeanne-Claude over their lifetimes. And, be sure to also read “Christo Found Beauty in Realizing the Impossible,” by our own Sophie Gilbert.
Photos: The Works of Christo
Hints:
View this page full screen.
Skip to the next and previous photo by typing j/k or ←/→.
-
![]()
Read moreThe artist Christo Vladimirov Javacheff, better known as Christo, poses for a photograph as he unveils his artwork, "The Mastaba" on Serpentine lake in Hyde Park in London on June 18, 2018. Christo's first UK outdoor work is a 20-meter-high installation made from over 7,000 colored, horizontally stacked barrels on a floating platform. #
Niklas Halle'N / AFP / Getty -
-
![]()
Read moreArtist Christo Javacheff's six-ton $700,000 curtain billows across Rifle Gap in Colorado in 1972. State officials gave permission for it to hang for one month, but canyon winds tore it to shreds within 24 hours. #
Bruce McAllister / EPA / National Archives -
![]()
Read moreAn environmental work of art titled "Surrounded Islands," by Christo, is in the process of being installed in Miami, Florida, in May of 1983. #
Kathy Willens / AP -
![]()
Read moreChristo works at his “Surrounded Islands” in Miami in 1983. #
Kathy Willens / AP -
-
![]()
Read moreAn aerial view of one of the "Surrounded Islands" in May of 1983. #
Kathy Willens / AP -
![]()
Read moreThe Pont-Neuf, oldest bridge in Paris, is illuminated by street lights in 1985 after being wrapped in 40,000 square meters of shiny nylon cloth by the artist Christo. The bridge remained open to vehicle and pedestrian traffic for the two weeks it was wrapped in September and early October. #
Herve Merliac / AP -
![]()
Read moreLocal public school children make their way down a footpath through rice fields and blue umbrellas in Sato River Valley, north of Tokyo, on October 9, 1991. After a one-day delay due to heavy rain, hundreds of workers opened 1,340 umbrellas, a work titled "The Umbrellas," spread throughout this farming valley. #
Mitsuhiko Sato / AP -
-
![]()
Read moreArtists Christo, left, and Jeanne-Claude, right, pose in front of an image of "The Umbrellas" as they visit their exhibition "Swiss Projects 1968-1998" at the Center PasquArt in Biel, Switzerland, on August 27, 2004. #
Keystone, Monika Flueckiger / Monika Flueckiger / Associated Press / AP -
![]()
Read moreAn aerial view shows Christo's "Wrapped Reichstag", covered with silver polypropylene fabric, on June 24, 1995. #
Lutz Schmidt / Reuters -
![]()
Read moreWorkers on Christo's team wrap the German Reichstag behind the Quadriga statue on top of the Brandenburg Gate. #
Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters -
-
![]()
Read moreThousands of visitors view the wrapped German Reichstag on June 25, 1995. #
Reinhard Krause / Reuters -
![]()
Read moreThe wrapped German Reichstag is reflected in the river Spree on June 28, 1995. #
Reinhard Krause / Reuters -
![]()
Read moreVisitors walk among wrapped trees in Riehen, Switzerland, on December 13, 1998, admiring for the last time the work of environmentalist artists Christo and Jean Claude. The artists decided to start to unwrap the "Wrapped Trees" a month earlier than expected. #
Winfried Rothermel / AP -
-
![]()
Read moreAn assistant puts final touches on one of 163 trees wrapped in the park of the museum of the Beyeler Foundation in Riehen near Basel, on November 18, 1998. #
Reuters -
![]()
Read moreChristo's exhibition "The Wall," inside the Oberhausen gasometer is well-attended on October 22, 1999, three days before the gates closed. The 26-meter-high wall made of 13,000 colorfully painted oil barrels saw more than 350,000 visitors. #
Roland Weihrauch / AP -
![]()
Read more"The Gates" art installation, created by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, lines a snow-covered bridge in New York's Central Park, on February 21, 2005. "The Gates" featured 7,500 frames with their hanging orange-tinted fabric, creating what the artists billed as "a visual golden river" along 23 miles of footpaths in the park. #
Mary Altaffer / AP -
-
![]()
Read more"The Gates," wind through the southeastern corner of Central Park on the art installation's opening day, February 12, 2005, in New York City. #
Kathy Willens / AP -
![]()
Read moreAn aerial view of part of "The Gates" in Central Park on February 11, 2005. #
Chip East / Reuters -
![]()
Read moreChris Hoeffel of Newtown, Connecticut, cross-country skies under "The Gates," after a winter storm left four inches of snow in Central Park on February 21, 2005. #
Gregory Bull / AP -
-
![]()
Read moreVisitors walk around inside the installation 'Big Air Package' during the unveiling at the Gasometer in Oberhausen, Germany, on March 15, 2013. #
Frank Augstein / AP -
![]()
Read more"Big Air Package" is pictured from outside and above during a preview at the Gasometer in Oberhausen on March 15, 2013. The indoor installation is 90 meters high, with a diameter of 50 meters, and a volume of 177,000 cubic meters. #
Ina Fassbender / Reuters -
![]()
Read moreIn this picture taken March 13, 2013 Christo looks up toward the top of "Big Air Package" at the Gasometer in Oberhausen, Germany, on March 13, 2013. #
Martin Meissner / AP -
-
![]()
Read moreAn aerial view of the installation "The Floating Piers," by Christo. The work connects the village of Sulzano, Italy, to the small island of Monte Isola and another very small island (São Paulo Island) on June 28, 2016. #
Fabrizio Villa / Getty -
![]()
Read morePeople crowd the installation "The Floating Piers" on Lake Iseo on the installation's final weekend, near Sulzano, northern Italy, on July 2, 2016. #
Wolfgang Rattay / Reuters -
![]()
Read morePart of "The Floating Piers" installation flows through the village of Sulzano, on June 28, 2016. #
Fabrizio Villa / Getty -
-
![]()
Read moreChristo attends the presentation of "The Floating Piers" on June 16, 2016. #
Pier Marco Tacca / Getty -
![]()
Read morePeople visit "The Floating Piers" at night, on Lake Iseo, on June 21, 2016. #
Max Cavallari / Getty -
![]()
Read moreAerial view of part of the installation "The Floating Piers," photographed on June 28, 2016. #
Fabrizio Villa / Getty -
-
![]()
Read moreWork takes place on a sculpture made of oil barrels titled "The London Mastaba," being constructed by artist Christo, in Hyde Park in London, on June 11, 2018. #
Kirsty Wigglesworth / AP -
![]()
Read moreSwimmers exercise in the Serpentine River in front of Christo's "The London Mastaba," in London's Hyde Park on June 19, 2018. #
Henry Nicholls / Reuters
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to [email protected].