The Guardian reports on Christo’s recently completed installation on Lake Iseo in Italy, a massive expanse of fabric stretching across the water, allowing visitors to literally walk on water.  “Each project finds his right place,” the artist said. (more…)

The Art Newspaper profiles Christo’s ongoing efforts to complete The Mastaba, a massive pyramid constructed from 410,000 barrels, which he has sought to install in the desert of Abu Dhabi.  “The engineering plan is almost finished,” he says.  “We need to have the land secure. That is the difficult part. It’s like the Eiffel Tower: it should remain a monument after I am gone.”  (more…)

Artist Christo has been announced as a 2015 recipient of the Insignia of Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters.  The award presentation will take place next week at the Payne Whitney Mansion in New York, the headquarters for the Cultural Services of the French Embassy.   (more…)

Artist Christo has unveiled his newest project, and the first piece conceived after the death of his longtime partner, Jeanne-Claude, a series of floating walkways at Lake Iseo in Northern Italy, which will allow viewers to walk out over the water on tightly woven nylon panels.  “They will feel the movement of the water under foot,” Christo said. “It will be very sexy, a bit like walking on a water bed.” (more…)

Christo has announced a new project aiming to create long immense, yellow fabric walkways spanning Lake Iseo in Lombardy, Italy.  The work will be the artist’s largest since his 2005 piece in New York’s Central Park, and the first since the death of his wife Jeanne-Claude. (more…)

Despite pending legal challenges to its construction, artist Christo has begun the preparation process for his “Over the River” project, an ambitious installation that will drape almost 6 miles of silver fabric over the Arkansas River in Colorado.  The artist has started clearing railroad tracks along the project’s route, and taking efforts to minimize effects on the area’s bighorn sheep population.  While official construction was supposed to begin next month, challenges to permits have made the official start date uncertain.  “I don’t consider it a pause,” Christo said. “It’s part of the dynamics of the project.”

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Christo is reportedly creating what he calls the world’s largest permanent sculpture, which will be installed in Abu Dhabi. The Mastaba, which is made out of 410,000 oil barrels, has an estimated production cost of $340 million, making it the world’s most expensive as well. An “art campus” is planned to be built near the structure, along with a luxury hotel and restaurant. (more…)

Darryl Kelly, a cleanup man from New York City, when asked to clean out reclusive artist Harry Shunk’s apartment back in 2006, inadvertently found works by Christo to Andy Warhol after the Lichtenstein foundation had taken the rest.  Mr. Kelly intends to auction the works off this fall.

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‪Denver law students protest artist Christo’s ‘Over the River’ project’s drilling 9,100 holes to cover federally-protected Arkansas Canyons in Colorado with 925 silver fabric panels. Expected to draw 400,000 tourists to the reserve when it debuts in 2014, the $50 million project is thought by some to have both short and long-term repercussions on native bighorn sheep, peregrine falcons, and bald eagles. [AO Newslink]

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‪‬Christo’s 42-mile installation ‘Over the River’ approved after 2 years for Arkansas River, Bureau of Land Management assures “steps have been taken to mitigate the environmental effects of this one-of-a-kind project” [AO Newslink]

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Jeanne-Claude and Christo via smh

Jeanne-Claude, the radical artist best known for the joint projects undertaken with her husband Christo – most notably the wrapping of the Pont Neuf in Paris and the installation of 7,503 vinyl gates with bright orange panels in Central Park in 2005 – dies at the age of 74 in New York City [Guardian] a review of some of the couple’s monumental art here [Guardian]

Jeff Koons’ train installation via artculture

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) reconsiders plans for a Jeff Koons sculpture involving a replica of a 70-ft 1944 Baldwin locomotive to hang from a crane and estimated to cost $25 million [LATimes]

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Lee Bontecou, Composition (1965) via Hauser & Wirth Gallery

The collection of Helga and Walther Lauffs, one of Europe’s most important private collections of 20th century post war art, will be on exhibit at the Hauser & Wirth Gallery in Zürich through July 26. The focus of the Lauff’s collection was new and ground breaking contemporary art.  Their collection contains key American and European artistic currents in the 1960’s and 1970’s.

Selections from the Collection of Helga and Walther Lauffs [ArtNet]
Selections from the Collection of Helga and Walther Lauffs [re-title.com]
VIDEO: Selections from the Collection of Helga and Walther Lauffs/Hauser&Wirth, Zurich [Vernissage]

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