Associated with nouveau realism and environmental art; known for "Running Fence" and other works. He created works of art with his wife, Jeanne-Claude, with whom he shared a birthday. He left his homeland of Bulgaria in 1957 by hiding on-board a medical supply train headed to Austria. He lost his Bulgarian citizenship in the late 1950s, becoming a man without a country. He settled in Paris, but struggled to fit in because of his difficulties with the language.
