The Gates: Vision vs. Reality

The newest Christo and Jeanne Claude creation, The Gates, is up and running in New York's Central Park and I get to add my two cents to the flood of reporting on this grand piece of public art. Now that we can see the Reality of it (or in my case: I can see the photos of Reality) we can compare it with the original Vision Christo has drawn up in so many beautiful sketches. These paper pieces help to prepare and to finance the actual event, but they are subserviant to the work itself. Still, anytime when I saw them on the artists' web site I loved the look and my expectations were set by these images.


In this photo provided by the Mayor's Office, Christo, second from left, and Jeanne Claude, third from left, are joined by students for the opening of 'The Gates' project in New York's Central Park Saturday, Feb. 12, 2005. (AP Photo/Mayor's Office, Edward Reed)

Now I see how the project turned out and I am somewhat disappointed: The gates have a very mechanical appearance, the saffron cloth lacks elegance and vibrancy, and there is just not enough density to make the gates snake through Central Park and redefine this icon of rest and green in urban America. Just take a look at one of the aerial photographs and you will understand what I mean, the orange of the Gates is just too whimpy and not powerful enough. Even the proportions of the height of a single gate to the amount of textile flowing down seem to be out of whack, you see more of the construction than of the beauty. Maybe this is a function of the safty requirements they needed to consider and meet but those never dominated any of the couple's previous projects: you always saw their surprising and delightful beauty and never the necessary but boring sweat. Could it be that I got it all wrong from afar and the best way to watch and enjoy the work is from the perspective of the joggers as they cruise along under the Gates? To help you answer all questions you may have, turn to the complete coverage about the project and the artists in the New York Times. Alternatively, you can switch on the blog dedicated to the Gates @ Central Park.
Let me then disclose at this point that I have been a big fan of C&JC for many years. Moreover, I firmly believe that they are the true successors of the bold dreams and lofty visions leftist artists like Tatlin and others had in the early hours of the revolutionary Soviet Union. These were the few beginning years when they were encouraged to experiment and to think fresh and free - before artists were subjected to the one and only dogma of the so called Socialist Realism. They conceived of an utopian art form created for the entertainment and education of the masses, accessable for free to everybody in public spaces. This art would have to be as colorful and joyful as Christo and Jeanne Claude made their projects over the decades. It is no accident that Christo who grew up in Socialist Bulgaria picked up on these visionary concepts, resurrected their true core, and made some of them real in his own art. You see great dreamers at work here! (and how good they are at making it happen!)