FILE--In this Feb. 11, 2009, file photograph, artist Christo, right, and his partner, Jeanne-Claude, are shown during a press conference for their exhibition "Over the River, A Work in Progress" at the Fondation de lHermitage in Lausanne, Switzerland. The artists' then-current artwork in progress was called, "Over The River," which proposed the horizontal suspension of fabric panels in separate segments along a stretch above the Arkansas River in southern Colorado. On Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2017, Christo announced that he has abandoned his plans for the display over the Arkansas River. (Keystone/Dominic Favre via AP, file)
The Associated Press
DENVER (AP) - The artist Christo said Wednesday he has abandoned his plan to drape translucent fabric above portions of Colorado's scenic Arkansas River, a proposal that generated fierce opposition and a long court battle.
"I no longer wish to wait on the outcome," the 81-year-old artist wrote in a website for the project, called Over the River. He cited 20 years of planning and five years of legal fights.
In a story published in the New York Times Wednesday, he said his decision was a protest against President Donald Trump.
The project would occupy federal land, and Christo told the newspaper he did not want to deal with the Trump administration.
"I use my own money and my own work and my own plans because I like to be totally free," he said. "And here now, the federal government is our landlord. They own the land. I can't do a project that benefits this landlord."
Over the River called for eight sections of fabric panels to be suspended in intervals along 42 miles of the river between Canon City and Salida. It would have taken two years to install and was to be on display two weeks
Opponents said the project could harm wildlife, the river and people.
Christo and his wife, Jeanne-Claude, proposed the project in 1996. Jeanne-Claude died in 2009.
Christo said he would focus on another project in the United Arab Emirates called the Mastaba.
File--In this Aug. 1, 1972, file photograph, part of an art installation by Christo Javacheff, which weighted six tons and cost of $750,000, hangs for a quarter mile over the Rifle Gap near the small western slope community of Rifle, Colo. Christo, who has been planning to drape a similar curtain across the Arkansas River in southern Colorado, announced on Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2017, that he has abandoned the effort. (AP Photo/file)
The Associated Press
FILE - In this Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013 file photograph, artist Christo responds to questions during a show of sketches and photos of some of his in-progress works at the Metropolitan State University Center for Visual Art in Denver. Christo and his late wife, Jeanne-Claude, had won state and federal permits to build a project called "Over the River," which would have involved the suspension of nearly six miles of giant fabric panels from anchors and cables over parts of a 42-mile stretch of the Arkansas River next to U.S. Highway 50. On Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2017, Christo announced that he has abandoned plans to complete the project. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, file)
The Associated Press