Jeanne-Claude, the Great Negotiator

How sad to hear the news that Jeanne-Claude, the feisty collaborator and companion to artist Christo, has died. I had the chance to meet the couple just over a year ago when they were honored, in something of a surprise choice, with a “Great Negotiator” award by the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.

What became clear in the public forum hosted for the award was that Jeanne-Claude, much more than Christo, was the better half at negotiation — and that it made all the difference to their work. Think what it takes to stage a large-scale art installation, however briefly, on land you do not own and for the most hard to describe reasons. The Gates in New York’s Central Park (2005) — arguably the couple’s most famous effort — came to pass only after 26 years of seeking permits from, and being rebuffed by, New York state and local leaders. Even more politicized was the campaign to wrap the Pont Neuf in Paris, which required approval from two leaders, President Francois Mitterand and Parisian Mayor Jacques Chirac, who on principle, in Jeanne-Claude’s words, “never agreed on anything.” Though the project was a triumph, it was the one the artists called their most difficult. “They were playing ping-pong,” Jeanne-Claude recalled, “and we were the ball.”

Less calculating, perhaps but more obdurate, were the ranchers Jeanne-Claude had to bring around to Christo’s vision for Running Fence in Marion County. “We needed 59 separate contracts with landholders,” she explained. “And they had no reason to want to work with us.” Rather than throw up her arms, Jeanne-Claude seemed to relish the challenge. One day, having yet another coffee in yet another kitchen, she found a rancher suspicious of her motives. Why embark on such a project if not for some gain? Leaving the house, she spotted a beautiful flower bed and exclaimed over her host’s gardening. She turned to him then, as though struck by a question: “But what is it good for?”

When he paused, then laughed, she knew she had his support. “Honey,” he said, “I get the message.”

The greatness of Jeanne-Claude’s negotiating was, in the end, not that she and Christo got their way at the bargaining table, but that they got so many millions of people to experience the world, at least a part of it and for a little while, on their terms.

It was Robert Mnookin, a law professor at Harvard, who pushed for a “Great Negotiator” award to be given to Christo and Jeanne-Claude. It meant taking a more expansive view of negotiation than usual, but that seemed appropriate. Negotiation is pervasive in human activity, he noted, not just in business deal-making. Indeed, all of life is wrapped in it.