February 8, 2005
Gates Countdown: 4 Days
It's beginning to look a lot like Christo-and-Jeanne-Claude's-vision- for-Central-Park! Yesterday, hundreds of people descended into Central Park to start setting up The Gates, one of the biggest public art projects to hit New York City. The project, funded by Christo and wife Jeanne-Claude, that will have 7,500 gates with saffron fabric all around the park is opening on Saturday and will be up until Feburary 27. Newsday looks at the scope of the project and includes this great quote from Jeanne-Claude that's a barely veiled dig at art historians:
One of our workers on the night shift asked me why is it temporary. I told him to think of the rainbow. And he grabbed my arm and says, "I think I got it: If the gates were there all the time, after a while nobody would be looking at them and the magic would be gone." And I said, "You've got it better than most art historians."Our own Joe Schumacher gave us this lovely photograph of the supports for the fabric being installed. His extensive coverage of The Gates notes that a worker said the gates were easy to put up and that the fabric will be unfurled at 8AM on Saturday. Thanks, Joe!
Here are websites from the city and Christo & Jeanne-Claude on The Gates; NY magazine had an extensive feature on the project as well. Documentarian Albert Maysles is doing a documentary about The Gates; here's the NY Times feature about it, which makes Gothamist love Albert Maysles so much more. Plus, Gothamist on The Gates.
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Jen, no! You squandered a great headline! You even had the idea, too. "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christo" would have been perfect!
Well, the Post is going to use that headline sometime later in the week anyway... so not all is lost...
I have a question:
when they talk about the pricetag on this, what is the general breakdown of $20 million?
I see there's a lot of equipment and labor, but is Christo getting a few million just for thinking this up???
OK, now I read they "financed the entire project themselves"
I guess my question is how on Earth did they get that kind of money?
OK, now i read:
" As Christo and Jeanne-Claude have always done for their previous projects, The Gates will be entirely financed by the artists through C.V.J. Corp, (Jeanne-Claude Javacheff, President) with the sale of studies, preparatory drawings and collages, scale models, earlier works of the fifties and sixties, and original lithographs on other subjects."
I should really read these FAQ's first before posting.
smithsonian magazine also has a really good article on Christo and Jenne-Claude this month that has info on their works, including the gates.