Christo and Jeanne-Claude's final artwork at Arc de Triomphe captured in a new book


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Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s final artwork, the wrapping of L‘Arc de Triomphe in Paris, has been chronicled in a new, limited-edition book by Taschen.

Titled Christo and Jeanne-Claude, L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped, Paris, 1961-2021, it explores every aspect of the project, from its earliest sketches to its spectacular realisation in September 2021, a year after Christo's death.

The cover of the Taschen book 'Christo and Jeanne-Claude, L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped, Paris, 1961-2021'. Photo: Taschen
The cover of the Taschen book 'Christo and Jeanne-Claude, L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped, Paris, 1961-2021'. Photo: Taschen

For 16 days, the famous landmark was cocooned in 25,000 square metres of recyclable, silvery blue polypropylene fabric, held in place by 3,000 metres of red rope. As with all of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's works, it was intentionally monumental and free to visit.

While memorable, and beautiful to behold — especially at dusk when the setting sun lit the shimmery fabric a dazzling gold — the idea took an astonishing 60 years to come to fruition.

First conceived in 1962, when the pair stayed near the Arc de Triomphe on their first arrival in Paris, it began as sketches and a photomontage showing the monument wrapped in cloth. The couple returned to the idea again in 1988, with collages.

The Arc de Triomphe, wrapped in silver-blue fabric, by Christo and Jean Claude. September 30, 2021. AFP
The Arc de Triomphe, wrapped in silver-blue fabric, by Christo and Jean Claude. September 30, 2021. AFP

Having met in 1958, together Jeanne-Claude and Christo enjoyed a lifelong artistic collaboration that resulted in audacious, site-specific projects all over the world. They wrapped the Reichstag in Germany in 1995, while in the early 1970s they hung a curtain between two Colorado mountains.

Following Jeanne-Claude's death in 2009, Christo continued working, creating a three-kilometre-long floating bridge connecting an island to mainland Italy in 2016. However, it was not until 1994 that Jeanne-Claude received any kind of recognition as a co-creator, with only Christo being given the credit.

The new book, at 450 pages, and limited to only 2,000 copies, has been created with the couple's studio, and follows their remarkable final artwork, from first sketches through to realisation — and has been seen by about six million people.

With all of their projects envisioned as deliberately short-lived, this expansive book gives a sense of permanence to something originally so ephemeral, and seems a fitting tribute to such a visionary pair.

Sheikh Zayed's poem

When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.

Your love is ruling over my heart

Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it

Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home

You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness

Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins

You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge

You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm

Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you

You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it

Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by. 

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Dubai World Cup nominations

UAE: Thunder Snow/Saeed bin Suroor (trainer), North America/Satish Seemar, Drafted/Doug Watson, New Trails/Ahmad bin Harmash, Capezzano, Gronkowski, Axelrod, all trained by Salem bin Ghadayer

USA: Seeking The Soul/Dallas Stewart, Imperial Hunt/Luis Carvajal Jr, Audible/Todd Pletcher, Roy H/Peter Miller, Yoshida/William Mott, Promises Fulfilled/Dale Romans, Gunnevera/Antonio Sano, XY Jet/Jorge Navarro, Pavel/Doug O’Neill, Switzerland/Steve Asmussen.

Japan: Matera Sky/Hideyuki Mori, KT Brace/Haruki Sugiyama. Bahrain: Nine Below Zero/Fawzi Nass. Ireland: Tato Key/David Marnane. Hong Kong: Fight Hero/Me Tsui. South Korea: Dolkong/Simon Foster.

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Juventus 3

Dybala 6', Bonucci 17', Ronaldo 63'

Frosinone 0

Updated: November 14, 2022, 7:12 AM`