Javashev Christo, commonly known as just, "Christo" is an innovative, creative artist who comes up with ideas that at first seem impossible and makes them a reality. He is a spontaneous artist who likes to surprise and overwhelm, by exceeding the traditional boundaries of painting, drawing, sculpture, and architecture. (Prokopoff 1) Even though some believe it is irrelevant, and not art at all, Christo's urban art has a lot of influence on our everyday lives because of its large-scale intervention, and its political and cultural context.
Although Christo is widely known for his extravagant artworks, there are still many people who deem his work irrelevant, obscene, and not art at all. When people see his work many are not sure what to think and sometimes don't even know what it is. (Goheen 2) An example of his is with Christo's "Surrounded Islands" done in 1980 - 1983. He took pink fabric and surrounded the bay of select islands.
English: The Fall of the Berlin Wall, 1989. The ph...
Christo (left), wrapped the Reichstag in Berlin, t...
Pont Neuf emballé par Christo / Pont Neuf wrapped...There were a lot of protests and the attention he got from this was not all positive.(Spies 8) "He was put in prime-time headlines right up there with such stories as Hitler's diaries, the Israel-Lebanon draft agreement and the nuclear arms freeze"(Spies 10). People believed that he was using tax payer's money to do these enormously expensive and temporary works, when in fact he funded them himself by selling the pre-drawings to galleries and art collectors.(Borgmann 4) In Christo's own words, "People are disturbed that I call it art. They say, this is frivolous, it's awful, and it's not art. But, already they are thinking in terms of art" (Spies 14) Art isn't always just the tangible, materialistic objects that you see in front of you. It's not just the color, or the shapes. It is the context, the environment, the...