Christo wrap of Arc de Triomphe in Paris set for September

Based on a concept Christo and his wife Jeanne-Claude had developed in 1962, "Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped" was to become artist's final large-scale project. He died in May 2020, before seeing its realization. After being delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the wrapping of the Parisian landmark at the end of Champs Elysees will be unveiled on September 18, and remain in place until October 3.

Christo Vladimirov Javacheff was born in Bulgaria on June 13, 1935. After studying art in Sofia, he fled to the West. In Paris he met his future wife, Jeanne-Claude, with whom he initiated spectacular art projects in the late 1960s. Christo took care of the art; Jeanne-Claude, the organization.

Christo developed his first elaborate installations in the 1960s, wrapping everyday objects such as chairs, magazines and oil drums. Later he created "Air Packages," such as this 5,600-cubic-meter (200,000-square-foot) installation at the Documenta 4 art fair in Kassel in 1968, which earned him worldwide recognition.

In the 1970s, projects by Christo and Jeanne-Claude grew more elaborate and colorful. To preserve their artistic freedom, the couple financed the installations by selling drawings, photographs and models of their works. In this spectacular creation from 1972, a 400-meter (1,310-foot)-long cloth was stretched across Rifle Gap, a valley in Colorado.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude never concealed objects and buildings to the point that they could no longer be recognized. The packaging was meant to stimulate the viewer's imagination. In 1985, they wrapped the Pont Neuf in Paris. Depending on the weather and time of day, the fabric would glisten differently — allowing the bridge to literally appear in a different light.

In the 1990s, the art interventions of Christo and Jeanne-Claude became increasingly gigantic — and risky. A worker died during installation of one of the 3,000 umbrellas set up in both Japan and California for their "Umbrellas" project. Afterwards, Christo hired only professional climbers and engineers. He had commissioned German companies to manufacture the huge amount of fabric for his art.

The journey from initial idea to completion of an artwork can be lengthy. It took Christo and Jeanne-Claude 23 years to realize their project "Wrapped Reichstag." The spectacular show finally took place in June 1995 once they had wrapped the seat of the German parliament with 100,000 square meters of silver fabric. Within 16 days, 5 million visitors came to see it.

Christo started working with oil drums in the 1960s — he blocked a Parisian street with stacked barrels in 1962. The barricade, entitled "Iron Curtain," was created in protest of construction of the Berlin Wall. He brought back the theme of division in his 1999 installation "The Wall," a 26-meter-high wall made of 13,000 oil barrels — set up in the Gasometer, an industrial space in Oberhausen.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude not only covered objects and structures, but also designed landscapes and parks; such as here in 2005 with "The Gates" in New York's Central Park. Christo and Jeanne-Claude planned the gates with the blowing fabrics in 1980, but approval of the project took even longer than the "Wrapped Reichstag." Environmental concerns were the main issue.

Christo's wife Jeanne-Claude died in 2009, and it took a few years for the artist to return to his projects. "Big Air Package" from 2013 was the first project he went alone. The 90-meter-high, air-filled textile package was set up in the Oberhausen Gasometer. Visitors could walk inside the huge sculpture — a fascinating spatial experience.

With "Floating Piers," Christo fulfilled a longtime dream: to walk on water. More than 1.2 million visitors came to walk the 3-kilometer (nearly 2-mile) stretch of pontoons on Lake Iseo in Italy. Like all of his projects, Christo financed the roughly €13 million ($14 million) work by selling sketches and photos, allowing him to remain free and independent of sponsors.

Like the air packages, variations on the idea of the mastaba shape regularly appeared in Christo's works. The pyramid with its sliced-off top, modeled after an Ancient Egyptian tomb, was a temporary installation in London's Hyde Park in 2018. The 7,506 oil barrels stacked on a floating platform were Christo's first major outdoor project in the United Kingdom.

London was a foretaste of a great mastaba Christo and Jeanne-Claude had planned for Abu Dhabi. They had often visited their desired location in the desert of the United Arab Emirates. The gigantic pyramid of 410,000 oil barrels was to be the artist couple's first major permanent project. But unlike wrapping the Arc de Triumph, "The Mastaba" — featured on Christo's homepage — has remained a dream.