Christo and Jeanne Claude

Christo and his late wife Jeanne-Claude, who died in 2009, have been drawing a great deal of attention for years with their monumental projects. In 2020 many thousands of art lovers will once again be on the road, this time to Paris. To celebrate the spectacular wrapping of the Arc de Triomphe, the Centre Pompidou is paying tribute to this unusual pair of artists with a large exhibition. The show and its companion book focus on the period Christo and Jeanne-Claude spent in Paris. Paris means a great deal to the couple's personal and artistic development. They met here in 1958 and devised the ideas for their first projects together here, as well. Paris is also the place where Christo and Jeanne-Claude were able to produce their first large public art project, in 1985: the wrapping of the Pont Neuf - a project that has gone down in art history. Through rarely seen early works, studies, drawings, and collages, the book sheds light on the trailblazing character of the Paris years, as well as on their great significance to the couple's artistic development afterward. To the artistic highlight of 2020: wrapping the Arc de Triomphe!