French Artist Jeanne-Claude Dies at 74

The fiery-haired modern artist Jeanne-Claude, co-creator of large-scale projects such as The Gates in New York’s Central Park, died Wednesday in New York due to complications from a brain aneurysm. Jeanne-Claude was born in Casablanca to French parents on June 13, 1935, the same day as her future husband and partner, the artist Christo, was born in Bulgaria.

After earning her Baccalaureat in Latin and Philosophy at the University of Tunis, Jeanne-Claude met Christo, a fine arts scholar, in Paris and began collaborating on art projects with him shortly thereafter. The couple’s famous motif is wrapping large buildings and natural spaces with different fabrics.

Among such awe-inspiring exhibits as The Gates, Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s other accomplishments incldued the Wrapped Coast in Little Bay, Australia; the Wrapped Reichstag in Berlin; the Wrapped Pont Neuf in Paris; the Surrounded Islands in Miami; and the Running Fence in Northern California.

Jeanne-Claude is survived by her son Cyril, his son Lysander, and her husband Christo, who, although deeply saddened by his wife’s passing, has asked that friends and admirers donate to their choice of charity instead of sending flowers or donations to the family. The couple has never solicited outside funding or philanthropy, choosing instead to finance all their own projects through sales of original drawings and models to museums.

As Jeanne-Claude said of the temporary nature of her work with Christo in a 2002 interview, “There is one quality [artists of past millennia] have never used, and that is the quality of love and tenderness that we human beings have for what does not last. […] If someone were to tell you, ‘Oh, look on the right, there is a rainbow.’  You will never answer, ‘I will look at it tomorrow.'”

Indeed, the couple’s ephemeral work will continue to inspire immediacy and urgency in their viewers—Christo has promised to finish implementing the couple’s in-progress pieces in the future, as an homage to his remarkable wife Jeanne-Claude.