Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Cultural Medallion Dedication 2024

“I was so delighted to learn that the Historic Landmarks Preservation Center had recently designated Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s home here at 48 Howard Street as a site of cultural importance to New York City. As artists, Christo and Jeanne-Claude were famous for wrapping things — the Reichstag, the Pont Neuf, the Arc de Triomphe — thereby adding to the cultural significance of objects or places the world might otherwise take for granted, by incorporating them into temporary works of art. How fitting, then, that this simple building, which physically enwrapped these two artists for so many years, should now receive its very own landmark recognition.

While many among you are familiar with Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s work, I expect that few of you ever visited them at home. I am lucky enough to have spent some happy times here with this amazing artistic team. I came to them first around 1991, at the age of 24, asking them on behalf of the Metropolitan Museum for some missing cataloguing information — this was after a Wrapped Walk Ways collage of theirs had been gifted to the Museum. I arrived with a dossier full of queries about various works of theirs in the Met’s collections, expecting to meet with an assistant over all these little details. But no — I sat down with Christo himself. During a long meeting in their utterly bare kitchen, he and I went through a vast list of questions. By the end of it, he had resolved every query, confirmed every item, addressed every little detail. Jeanne-Claude was out that day, and Christo made lunch for just the two of us, heating up a single can of peas which we then shared, along with some bread and butter. Such was the simplicity of their kitchen and their home.

Nine years later I became executive director of the Vilcek Foundation — an organization that celebrates immigrant contributions to science and to art — and I saw Christo and Jeanne-Claude more often. In fact, in 2006, the Foundation presented them with the first annual Vilcek Prize. During those years I became very well acquainted with Christo’s love of raw garlic, which he ate even at breakfast; I also came to appreciate his exceptional talent at making Bloody Marys. And I was fascinated by Jeanne-Claude, not only for her energy but also for her extraordinary meticulousness and pragmatism — something that I myself, as a foundation director, take very seriously. She was so endlessly busy! The many years of preparation that went into each of their extraordinary works were largely spent on logistics, financing and problem-solving, and Jeanne-Claude was unbelievably persistent, resourceful and dedicated to the work of getting and keeping everything in order. Christo, too, was a model of diligence, assiduity and resolve. Visiting them here, I sensed that nearly everything within their living space was devoted to their art — its inception, its nurturance, its funding, its planning and organization and, of course, all those seemingly endless battles with bureaucratic red tape. But the joy of creation was so strong in both these artists, and they joy they gave to others through their work was such that, whatever the challenge, they never gave in to despair. They were sure their projects would ultimately get done — in large part because there was no ego, no grandiosity, only a complete and utter focus on bringing each undertaking to realization.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude were artists, but they were also man and wife. The quiet home and studio that they established here at 48 Howard Street demonstrates both the simplicity of their quotidian existence, and at the same time, the point of origin for art works that ultimately spanned the globe, capturing extraordinary international critical and popular attention for more than half a century, and delighting people the world over. Although the couple met in Paris in 1958 and created their first major artwork together in Europe in 1961, it was here that they did most of their work — by 1964 they had emigrated to the United States and established residence here in SoHo, where their enormous creativity could flourish as never before.

When a complete artistic history of New York’s SoHo is written, the world will know that this unassuming little neighborhood has been a place of extraordinary artistic achievement, a community in which so many art forms — music, dance, painting, performance, and conceptual art, to name just a few — have proliferated and thrived. And surely with today’s landmark designation of 48 Howard Street, Christo and Jeanne-Claude are confirmed as major figures in American art history. With the unveiling of this plaque, we establish New York as their home.” – Rick Kinsel