World-renowned sculptor Christo spoke at Ann Arbor’s Michigan Theater last Thursday, as part of the Penny Stamps Lecture Series. (Photo by Jenn McKee)

On Thursday evening, world-renowned sculptor Christo, 82, told a huge crowd — packed into the Michigan Theater to see him — what might be the best, most succinct courtship story of all time.

Of his longtime partnership with Jeanne-Claude, with whom he collaborated on his massive art installations (and who died in 2009), Christo said, with a shrug, “I was very young, we make love, and we like each other. That’s all.” Moments later, he added, “She was very pretty.”

But Christo — dressed in dark slacks, a collared white shirt, and a big-pocketed beige jacket that hung off his lean frame — initially kicked off his Penny Stamps Speaker Series lecture with a few parameters: “I will answer all questions, but I will not talk about politics, religion, and certainly not about other artists. I talk about myself, my work, and anything that I can tell you about my work.” READ THE REST HERE