Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Jeanne-Claude, the artist who collaborated with her husband, Christo, on large-scale public works that included wrapping Berlin’s Reichstag in aluminum and decking out New York City’s Central Park with sheets of yellow- orange fabric, has died. She was 74.

She died last night at a New York hospital from complications of a brain aneurysm, the Associated Press reported, citing her family.

The couple’s 2005 project in New York, “The Gates,” placed panels of free-flowing fabric suspended from gateway frames along 23 miles of the park’s walkways. The two-week exhibition drew 4 million visitors and generated $254 million from hotel stays, restaurants and other cultural attractions, according to the city.

Other projects by Jeanne-Claude and her Bulgarian-born husband included the 1995 “Wrapped Reichstag” in Berlin, the 1983 transformation of islands off Miami into lily pads using pink fabric, and, in 1991, a simultaneous display of huge umbrellas in Japan (blue) and in California (yellow). The display was taken down early after one umbrella uprooted by a wind gust north of Los Angeles struck and killed a woman.

‘Love and Tenderness’

“We wish our works to be temporary,” Jeanne-Claude said in October 2008, when she and her husband addressed the National Press Club in Washington. “We have love and tenderness for childhood because we know childhood will not last. We have love and tenderness for our lives because we know it will not last. This quality of love and tenderness, we wish to give it to our work of art as an additional aesthetic quality.”

The couple sometimes struggled to win government approval and public acceptance of their unusual work. It took them 10 years to win permission for “The Pont Neuf Wrapped,” which wrapped golden fabric around an historic bridge over the River Seine in Paris. They first pitched “The Gates” to New York City officials in 1979.

Jeanne-Claude said the couple’s best-received work was “Wrapped Walk Ways,” a 1978 project that wrapped saffron- colored fabric along walkways and jogging paths in Jacob Loose Memorial Park in Kansas City.

Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon was born on June 13, 1935, in Casablanca, Morocco, to a French military family, according to a biography on the couple’s Web site. She was educated in France and Switzerland and earned her university degree in Latin and philosophy from the University of Tunis.

Collaboration With Christo

Though they collaborated on envisioning their work, Jeanne- Claude handled the business end while Christo, who was trained as an artist, drew up their ideas.

Jeanne-Claude said the couple made a conscious decision, after settling in New York City early in their careers, to present Christo as the lead artist in their projects.

“We knew that the art world locally would not be at the harbor to welcome one more European artist emigrating,” she said. “They had their own. And we knew that it is very hard for one foreign artist or artists to establish oneself. If we had said two, forget it.”

She said it wasn’t until 1993, when “Christo’s hair had turned gray and mine had turned red, that we could finally tell the truth. And that is why my name appeared.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Laurence Arnold in Washington at larnold4@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 19, 2009 12:21 EST