When Christo’s parents fearfully destroyed his beloved art books after the Nazis brought their oppressive new laws to Bulgaria, it became a formative event in Christo’s life. Clearly, art was powerful, useful, and sometimes threatening; as a young man in art school years later, Christo wanted his paintings to illuminate the truth of life under Soviet control, while the government demanded that art serve as propaganda. Christo fled Bulgaria for France, where he met Jeanne-Claude, his future partner in life and art, and developed his signature art form and style: wrapping objects. Later, having immigrated to the United States, Christo and Jeanne-Claude set their hearts on a large art installation in Central Park but were repeatedly turned down. In the meantime, they wrapped ever-larger objects: enormous structures here and abroad, including the perimeters of small islands and part of the shoreline along the Australian coast. Eventually, after more than two decades, they were permitted to create their masterpiece, The Gates, a winding series of mounted orange flags in Central Park. Always temporary and designed with environmental preservation in mind, Christo’s “wild, wide-open creations” were, unlike the carefully controlled art of his childhood and adolescence, open to interpretation and accessible to all.  (Ages 5-8)