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Jeanne-Claude, 1935-2009.

2009-11-19 21:00:01

Jeanne-Claude -- Christo's collaborator and partner -- died today in Manhattan at the age of 74. It was fitting, in a way, not only because the artist pair have been residents of the city since 1964, but because their last big completed project was "The Gates," which turned Central Park's walkways into a series of orange vinyl doorways and drapes, portways of color livening up an especially dreary winter. Christo and Jeanne-Claude have been shorthanded as the people who "wrap" things, which only goes so far. A bigger part of their projects was to rendering the familiar temporarily strange, whether by covering a bridge's familiar outlines in fabric or by transforming it into an ominous new bulk. Six times, Christo and Jeanne-Claude's projects have been documented by Albert Maysles ("Gimme Shelter," "Grey Gardens") and, before his death, his brother David. Besides capturing some memorable, deliberately ephemeral artwork in their wind-breathing...

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