 |
|
|
Christo & Jeanne-Claude's Central Park, New York reviewed by |
|
The Gates, however, appears more as a news story in the press. I know this positively because my WHYY subscription ensures that a Newsweek, to my dismay, arrives at my house weekly. It has featured articles on Christo and Jeanne-Claude numerous times. The March 7 issue with a "fake" Martha Stewart on the cover included a fluffy post-exhibition piece declaring that it was lots of fun!. Though these bits and pieces in the news proclaimed The Gates as a national event attracting public imagination, it seems to leave out the "art" part. Even for New Yorkers, who genuinely like art anyway, this is overlooked, though it is still an out of the ordinary event for them. It has certainly livened up their grey mid-winter for a brief but intense period. After my visit, I went to compare what the critics said. Most were enthusiastic or thrilled, apart from Hal Foster who thought the spectacle quality dominated while the piece was superfluous. He has a point. The Philadelphia Inquirer's art critic, who is always looking for some aesthetic quality akin to painterly beauty, didn't like the posts and didn't think it clung together as a ribbon, which missed the point completely. He is not wrong that the stanchions were somewhat clunky and final supports were not elegant and were "attached" to the park because of restrictions from the city, but I don't think that means the piece was bad art. It was simply a certain type of art and too easy to enjoy on a basic level whether one gets the artists' impetus or not. It was also a shining example of art as promotion, which is almost the definition of art these days, love it or lump it. Like everyone else, I enjoyed taking in the endless variations along the path and sharing in the pedestrian buzz while looking for a theme or intention. Sticking close to the lower end of the park we stumbled upon the skating rink which added more sense of cozy community feeling. One could almost hear Bing Crosby. How many works of art allow you to participate in such a way, to simply breathe and exist. Nothing intimidating here. To be successful in this way, it may have needed no other purpose than to simply embellish a walk in the park. New Yorkers were walking more than usual and soaking up The Gates. Perhaps because they have needed something extra to be cheerful about lately. Don't we all? Watching their response was as rewarding as anything else. Upon entering the park, my friends and I were all keen to know each others thoughts, but it defied any quick summation. There was nothing initially not to like. Also it's hard to respond at first because one is only experiencing a portion of it (none of us were up for the full 23 mile jaunt). The joyous part of Christo's work has always been the scale, the simplicity of idea and, often, the controversial public reaction. The Gates evoked many different things, though: parades, flags, goal posts (is the orange color, "saffron," really that of Tibetan monks?), or carnival, it was primarily a public moment. Representing an extension of the original gates to Olmstead's mid-nineteenth century creation (which were never built), Christo and Jeanne-Claude's idea may just have been something to latch the sculpture on to. The park is man-made, so there was no "man versus nature" concern. I believe part of the significance of the work is how it successfully bridges a time span starting with Christo's early art of the 60s and 70s and up to now. Oddly enough, though art has changed significantly, these projects continue with much of their original intention: that of transforming natural spaces and thus creating something man-made -- in this case, art -- where there was previously only a canyon or a reef. Interestingly, these "outdoor" works differ from Christo's classic wrapped buildings which make more of a cultural comment on historic landmarks and our perception of them. What is as cool as wrapping the Reichstag? But it is the momentum over time and the cumulative notoriety that makes Christo and Jeanne-Claude's events of this scale possible. Without selling tons of drawings to a lot of people it would not be possible. This may partly explain the fact that The Gates has resonated so thoroughly outside the art world sphere. It has had a long life. Though this populist spin and gushing response may denude the loftier, original "aesthetic" and earlier subversive aspects of Christo's work, the piece still conforms to the great ideals of public art. Originally coming out of minimal/environmental art, these works now share in the big time spectacle in terms of marketing, cost, engineering, and public perception. In that sense, they are totally contemporary while also, at least partly, harking back to the day when this was truly bizarre and ground breaking stuff. It makes me wonder what Robert Smithson would be doing now. ©
2005 James Rosenthal and InLiquid.com;
image copyright © Christo |
|
|||||||||||
