Artwork Description
Christo and Jeanne-Claude – Wrapped Building, Project for #1 Times Square, 42 St and Broadway, New York
Dimensions: 30.88 x 23.5″ unframed
Year: 2003
Medium: lithograph and screenprint in colours with collage of broadcloth and thread
Edition: ed. AP 11/40
The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia writes the following about this work by Christo and Jeanne-Claude:
Wrapped Building, Project for 1 Times Square is part of an unsolicited proposal to wrap the 25 story, wedge shaped building currently known as #1 Times Square. It was originally built as the offices for The New York Times newspaper for which the area was named. It is the home of the annual New Year’s Eve ball that drops at midnight. Christo and Jeanne-Claude permanently moved to New York City in 1964 and began developing projects they wanted create in the metropolis. They first proposed wrapping #1 Times Square (known then as the Allied Chemical Building) in 1967 when its owner was a close friend of one their patrons. The thin, chair-shaped building stood alone and was situated in the busiest pedestrian crossroads in the world. From then until the late 1980s, Times Square was New York’s crime plagued red light district. Today, #1 Times Square’s value is as a scaffold for the most valuable advertising space in the world. Over four decades, Christo and Jeanne-Claude produced different lithographic prints that reflected the changing character of Times Square. Their intention to wrap this building didn’t waiver from inception onward but insurance regulations were the stumbling block to their realization. Most Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s wrapped buildings have been art museums and other public buildings that are more inclined to being part of a giant artwork.
-Art Gallery of Nova Scotia