Bulgarian conceptual artist.

Christo, the Bulgarian conceptual artist, passed away the other day. His art involved wrapping large buildings in cloth, redefining their look and feel. Related efforts saw him placing large, material-based structures in well known landscapes to change the visual impact of the accepted and to challenge established comfort zones.

What may be his best effort in that regard was wrapping the arrogant Germans’ Reichstag (parliament) building, which Goering had burned down in the late 1930s to help define communists (whom he blamed for his fire) as the enemies of the state and excuse the pogroms which followed. Being arrogant and German, synonymous terms in my book, the former Nazis who went on to run post-war Germany, much helped by American money, rebuilt the burned out hulk and you can see it in all its ugliness here. After Christo’s magical treatment this monstrosity, and tribute to a monstrous past, looked a whole lot better. The Germans should have simply pulled down this monument to evil …. or left it wrapped.

Reichstag – much improved by Christo.

It does not take much imagination to see the magic in Christo’s work. Perhaps the Central Park orange porticos are his best known American work but for me it will always be the Grapevine umbrellas, installed just north of west Los Angeles, which resonate most.

The umbrellas in the Grapevine.

The Grapevine is an especially windy stretch of the 5 freeway and a tremendous – and dangerous – challenge to a motorcyclist and it was with a small band of friends that I regularly rode it on our two wheeled steeds. It was always terrifying, but the roads around either side were a biker’s delight. So when Cristo installed his large umbrellas up and down the freeway in 1991, we made the trip and the effect really was magic. Looking at these in the distance they seemed like nothing so much as a bunch of California poppies, like-colored flowers to be found in abundance at this location, if at a much smaller scale. The day before we visited the high winds there ripped one of the massive umbrellas from the ground, sadly killing a spectator, but that tragic event did not take away from the experience.

You can read all about Christo’s magic umbrellas here.

One especially appealing part of Christo’s work is that is was all self-financed from proceeds of sale of sketches and the bits and bobs left over. The taxpayer paid not one red cent.

The motorcycle? The same I ride today, my 1975 BMW R90/6, which I had then recently bought from the original owner, in 1990. Well, ‘bought’ is not quite right. More accurately, I inherited custodial duties. Unlike the Reichstag, it does not benefit from wrapping.