L’Arc de Triomphe, WRAPPED
Christo and Jeanne-Claude
Taschen, £20
 

JUST 16 days in situ, but 60 years in the making, this book charts the creation and construction of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s L’Arc de Triomphe, WRAPPED, although it doesn’t actually feature the final exhibit in all its glory.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude were known for wrapping, enveloping and engaging with open spaces, large installations and oil barrels (London Serpentine i 2018), but primarily their art was about fabric, textiles and temporary materials interacting with the environment.

Born on the same day in 1935, the pair met and married in Paris in the late 1950s and embarked on a career symbolised by art crossed with large scale landmarks and landscapes.

It was the plans to wrap the Arc de Triomphe that effectively embodied that whole career, and this book provides the detail behind the project as well as insights into the key protagonists and supporting parties.

You can see the concept and the work coming together. For those who like to study the origin and evolution of artwork, this book provides detailed sketches and drawings as well as the technical background to the materials and rope used in the installation.

There are early pictures of the artists, sketches of the project, schematics, and sections on creating the materials and their installation.

Interestingly, all those involved are namechecked, and it is notable that Christo and Jean-Claude always ensured anyone that worked on their projects was properly paid.

In addition, so they could work in total freedom the funding came from Christo and Jeanne-Claude themselves, Christo’s sketches and plans are sold to support the project; and at a cost of £12.9 million, that is a significant level of fundraising.

That’s all the more amazing when you think some 1,200 workers were employed to realise the installation.

This is an interesting insight into the project and work, a nice selection of shots — especially from the early years in Paris — but perhaps missing the centre of attention, the wrapped Arc de Triomphe.

The fact that some six million people visited the site, and that over one million are estimated to have gone to Paris simply for this project, shows how a single, short event can catch the attention.

Whether wrapping the Reichstag back in 1995, the Pont Neuf over the Siene in 1985, or the wall of 89 barrels in Rue Visconti, Paris, in 1962, this book highlights how the Arc de Triomphe WRAPPED crowns a career that always stuck true to the artists’ principles.

It’s a fitting if slightly thin tribute and conclusion to a career spanning and all-encompassing project that sums up the idiosyncratic ideas, approach and perseverance of Christo and Jean-Claude.