Renato Barilli Remembers Christo and the Nouveau Réalisme

Renato Barilli, an Italian art critic and professor emeritus at the University of Bologna, recounts his first encounter with Christo (Gabrovo, 1935 – New York 2020) in the early 1960s at the small Bologna gallery Duemila, run by Giancarlo Franchi. Franchi showed him a wrapped object from Paris, which Barilli initially saw as a derivative of Man Ray's experiments. However, Christo later amplified this modest gesture into monumental works, paralleling the approach of Italian artist Isgrò with erasure. Barilli became a close friend of Pierre Restany and Guido Le Noci, key figures of Nouveau Réalisme, and championed Christo's inclusion in a 1970 Milan commemoration of the movement's tenth anniversary. After Restany's death, Barilli organized a commemorative exhibition at PAC in Milan, insisting on including Christo despite opposition from Christo's wife, Jeanne-Claude, who claimed Restany had been hostile. Barilli circumvented her veto by borrowing works from private collectors. Later, at a Paris conference celebrating Restany's demi-siècle, Barilli's talk on Christo was excluded from the proceedings. Barilli concludes by reflecting on Christo's legacy, noting his monumental projects like the Floating Piers on Lake Iseo, and suggesting that his works rival the Pyramids and the Great Wall, but with a modern twist: matter can disappear, leaving only virtual images.