Christo
Arc de Triomphe IV, Project for Paris

Discover the new limited special edition for the major retrospective on Christo & Jeanne-Claude at the Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf. We have published it exclusively in cooperation with the Kunstpalast, the Jochheim Collection and the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation in New York.

The wrapping of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris was realized posthumously in 2021. The project was a special request from Christo: a tribute to Paris, the city where he and Jeanne-Claude met at the end of the 1950s and where they took their first artistic steps. The wrapping of the Arc de Triomphe was a breathtaking work of art!

In the motif of the special edition, the wrapped Arc de Triomphe is shown frontally. It fills almost the entire picture space and almost bursts through it, impressively reflecting the actual monumentality of the installation. The colorfulness of the fabric, which shimmered sometimes silver-bluish, sometimes glistening white depending on the time of day and lighting conditions and always seemed to be changing, is also particularly effective.

It is a striking image in which Christo gets to the heart of the idea behind the project. Anyone who has seen the installation knows that the wrapping transformed the Arc de Triomphe. It was alienated, lost its heaviness, became a fifty-meter-high sculpture. And this sculpture, clad in fabric, appeared light, sublime, at times dramatic and surreal.

Christo's picture captures this aura masterfully!