Christo

There are several notable features about the artistic work of Christo who died recently aged 85.

His large scale outdoor works were not commissioned – he received nothing for them – and although they took years sometimes decades to plan with his wife Jeanne Claude they were dismantled fairly quickly.

He carried on working in his 70s and 80s, though the passing of Jeanne Claude in 2009 who was more involved in the logistics, did limit output.

He is known for the covering of the Reichstag, the pink creation in the Serpentine and Central Park oeuvres.

Christo was born in Bulgaria in 1935, fled the Communist regime for Austria, met his Moroccan wife in Paris and finished up stateless in New York where he was offered American citizenship.

Of course the works established his name and he could finance the outdoor creations out of the sale of his smaller art.

His work raises that familiar question “What is art?”

It was in 1912 that Marcel Duchamp declared his toilet sculpture to be art and years later Andy Warhol a Campbell soup can.

I’m not entering into the debate here except to say that Christo contributed enormously to public art and its visual appreciation.