The Gates - Central Park, NYC

[gct13]

The Gates - Central Park, NYC

Sunday, February 13, 2005

[Future Planner]

Thanks for the Pics! This has been all over the news this weekend including a 60 Minutes story tonight. They spent over $20 million on this.... Is it "inspiring" in person? I just don't understand this type of "art." Someone please clue me in.

[abrowne]

The orange ... structures (?) are very striking. I love them. What is the story behind them? I think this would have been marvelous if they had been installed in one night, under cover of darkness. Instant transformation.

Beautiful, I love what the orange brings to this. Thank you for the photos.

(...that being said, hopefully these are temporary. This drawn out too long would be frightful.)

edit: $20 million sounds obscene, but without knowing the true scope I can't say for certain. I applaud this project but, wow... 20 million. That could have done a lot elsewhere.

[JosephLi]

Please kindly forward me the story about this decoration history or underline meanings. Thanks a lot in advanced to New yorker.

[JNA]

The NY Daily News
Article Headline: 700,000 take stroll thru 'Gates'
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/sto...p-240619c.html

They also have a photo gallery with 48 pictures.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/galleri...MPLATE=DEFAULT

The NY Yimes has many Articles/Interactive Feature/Slide Show in a special section:
'The Gates, Central Park, New York, 1979-2005'
Christo and Jeanne-Claude
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/arts/design/GATES-REF.html
The NY Times requires registration.

[PlannerByDay]

I'm sure many of you have seen or heard about the new GATES exhibit in Central Park in New York.

What do you think about it. Is it art or not.

Personally I think is it pretty cool. I also liked the unbrella thing they did in southern California a few year back. The Pink wrapping of the 11 or so islands in Miami on the other hand I thought was not cool.

Here is a weblink of some pictures of THE GATES.

What do you think about them?

[Maister]

Christo isn't my thing personally, but I'd say his works fall squarely into the 'art' camp.

[gct13]

Is it "inspiring" in person? I just don't understand this type of "art." Someone please clue me in.

It is simply fantastic in person. The magnitude of the project is overwhelming, it covers just about every single footpath in the park, not a small area.

[JNA]

MODS -
Combine threads
GTC 13 started this already at
http://www.cyburbia.org/forums/showt...206#post198206

[boilerplater]

GCT, was the roof deck of the Met mobbed? I was planning on a city visit next weekend. I think its really great, though I still think the "Running Fence" of Marin County in California is my favorite.

All their projects are about framing a landscape in a new way, allowing you to see other dimensions of it, revealing the unseen.

I find it amusing that they call the color "saffron" rather than orange. Orange was too simple, too juvenile. Did they pick it from Ralph Lauren house paints? Those have names like that.

I admire their persistence, to pursue this 25 years after first proposing it, and to spend their own money! That is being possessed of a vision! They could have saved their money and bought villas in Monaco and Tuscany, but instead they do this, and share an idea with the world.

[the north omaha star]

I saw the gates this past weekend while in NYC. It was a beautiful sight.

[gct13]

GCT, was the roof deck of the Met mobbed?

I didn't make it up to the roof deck, although that's a great idea. If you were refering to this pict-



This was taken from the base of the Belvedere Castle overlooking the Great Lawn. It was soaked with Gates-seers up there. I didn't wait to go to top of the Castle because the slow line was quite long.

[SGB]

I met Christo in his studio during a high school field trip to NYC. Models and drawings of future projects filled the studio from floor to ceiling and wall to wall.

I personally like his work; to me they put a temporary yet interestingly unique new perspective on place and geography.

I especially like how The Gates was self-financed through the sale of plan paintings and drawings of this installation made by he and his wife.

SGB wishing I were heading to NYC soon.....

[Kobayashi]

Wow, that's just plain ugly.

[Tranplanner]

Very interesting - it has much more of an impact than I thought it would.

[JNA]

Interesting article:
Olmsted vs. Christo
Why the architects of Central Park would have vetoed "The Gates."
By Witold Rybczynski
at:http://www.slate.com/id/2113445/

[MitchBaby]

I think it looks amazing...

[oulevin]

It does bring some color into an otherwise drab landscape.

[Kobayashi]

It does bring some color into an otherwise drab landscape.

I've never heard the words Central Park and drab in the same sentence. I could understand strip mall and drab, but Central Park and drab? You need to come down to Mobile sometime, i'll show you drab, my whole region is drab!!

[marisolrodz]

Visit the following link and judge yourselfs the new Puerto Rico's Public Art Project.


http://www.artepublico.puertorico.pr...papr/index.htm

[michaelskis]

Some day, Black and White pictures with only the orange banners in color will be a collector’s item. I know I wish I was able to get out there and take some B&W's of the park.

[Alaithea]

IMO, the photos are more impressive than it was in person (went there two weeks ago). I was looking forward to it, and expected to be struck by the surreality of it -- the bright color standing out in the winter landscape -- but it just left me feeling as flat as one of the panels of fabric. I got a slight kick out of looking into the distance at all the gates winding around over far-away paths, but it felt like I was "trying" to find something to enjoy at that point. I think I would have preferred to just appreciate the beauty of the park by itself.

[ablarc]

I just don't understand this type of "art." Someone please clue me in.

It’s an example of conceptual art. The art is partly in the concept.

The concept:

“...convincing townships, city governments, government bureaucrats to grant [the artist, Christo] permits and permissions, and donors to give him sufficient funding so that he may wrap [something large]… in massive amounts of… cloth…

...you introduce one aesthetic element into an area where we wouldn't have expected to run into it, thereby creating something of a framing device which decontexutalizes the familiar and forces us to reconsider our relationship with the spaces we inhabit, the spaces we pass through, the spaces we create where there was no space before."

--Ted Burke, Slate
http://www.slate.com/id/2113445/

[gct13]

The photos are down at the moment, they will be back up asap after I challenge my webhost to a duel