CHRISTO

 An environmental installation artist and painter of architectural landscape drawings, Christo has become known for "wrapping" famous buildings and geographical landmarks with plastic and woven-fabric sheets. His projects, usually with the assistance of his wife and dealer Jeanne-Claude, include wrappings of the "Berne Kunsthalee" in 1968, a coastline area in Australia; the Reichstag, in Berlin; and the Pont Neuf in Paris. In California, he built a running fence 18 feet high and 24.5 miles long and in Japan and California, created a running series of 3,100 umbrellas.

He was born in Gabrovo, Bulgaria, on June 13, 1935, the same day as his wife, Jeanne-Claude. He studied at the Fine Arts Academy in Sofia from 1952 to 1956, and then worked at the Burian Theatre in Prague in 1956. He did further study in Vienna in 1957 and the following year went to Paris where he began creating wrapped, packaged objects. He and his wife have lived primarily in New York City, although they travel frequently.

They do not use their last name, Javacheff, although their son Cyril took the last name of Christo. According to Bedford McIntosh, "In the past few years they have come to refer to themselves as the 'artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude,' recognizing her critical role in the projects. The titles on their more recent projects reflect this."

Funding for the site-specific works come from the sale of preparatory drawings, documents, and sculptures.