Christo and Jeanne-Claude: In/Out Studio

Book info: Christo and Jeanne-Claude: In/Out Studio (Hardcover, 352 pages) – Verlag Kettler, 2021. Language: English.

Christo (1935–2020) and Jeanne-Claude (1935–2009) created some of the most breathtaking artworks of the 20th and 21st centuries. Their projects radically questioned traditional conceptions of painting, sculpture, and architecture. This lavish photo book is the first comprehensive publication on the artists’ oeuvre to be released after Christo’s death in May 2020. It also serves as a curtain-raiser for Christo und Jeanne-Claude’s last major project – the wrapping of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, which will be carried out posthumously in the fall of 2021. Presenting a wealth of photographs and studio snapshots from 1949 to 2020, some of which are private, this book allows an intimate peek behind the scenes of Christo und Jeanne-Claude’s monumental installations which fascinated the public for decades. In addition to pictures capturing the artists at work, it includes photos documenting all of their major projects. Matthias Koddenberg (b.1984), art historian and close friend of the artists, spent many years compiling the more than 300 images featured in this volume. Among them are pictures taken by companions and friends and hitherto unpublished photographs from the artists’ estate. Together they tell the extraordinary story not only of the couple’s artistic collaboration, but also of their five-decade-long partnership.