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The Gates Journey
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Photo
by Wolfgang Voltz
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Its been 25 years since Christo and Jeanne-Claude and Ted Kheel,
their lawyer, approached the city for permission to construct
the Gates Project for Central Park. Here Kheel and the artists
talk about the impact of The Gates Project, its genesis and
its connotations.
In a letter written to the New York Times, Kheel describes The
Gates Project as a double gift - one to the city, the other
to NNYN, to help nurture New York City's nature.
"As Carol Vogel aptly reported in the NY Times on January
4, 2004, "The Gates," by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, will be
the "biggest" public art project the city has ever seen at least
since the park itself was designed in 1857. What is not generally
known, however, is that the $20 million cost of The Gates, which
will be on exhibition in Central Park for 16 days in February,
is being paid in its entirety by the artists out of sales of
art created by Christo himself.
What is even less known is that the artists have donated a second
gift which may benefit New Yorkers for years to come. It is
an exclusive, world-wide, royalty-free license the artists have
given Nurture New York's Nature, a not-for-profit foundation
I serve as president, entitling us to use their intellectual
property rights in The Gates to create public awareness of the
importance of nurturing the nature of New York to the health
and well-being of the city's inhabitants.
With more than one half of the earth's people living in cities
with populations of a million or more, large cities are now
the natural habitat of most of humanity. Environmental responsibility
now requires that we increase our awareness of urban ecology.
The unique confluence of The Gates and Nurture New York's Nature
is forging a powerful connection between the exuberance of public
art on a grand scale and the desire of a city's people to live
in harmony with their environment."
In a recent WNBC-TV interview with Gabe Pressman the artists
described The Gates as a work of art and beauty
Pressman: So what do you see as the mission of this project?
Jeanne-Claude: We do not create missions. We create works of
art of joy and beauty which like other works of art have absolutely
no purpose…. Any idiot can have a great idea. The idea is to
do it.
Pressman: When people see The Gates going up are they going
to say," What the heck is going on with our park?"
Jeanne Claude: They will, because most people say, "What is
it for?" And the answer is it's for nothing.
Christo & Jeanne Claude: For five hundred years artists have
used marble, bronze and other materials to last the ages. But
there's one quality they haven't used that is the quality of
love and tenderness that we human beings have for things that
do not last.
Earlier they talked with the writer Jonathan Fineberg about
what inspired them, why they chose Central Park and the precedent
it may create. The interview was published in On the Way to
The Gates (Yale University Press,2004)
The Inspiration
Christo: Probably through the seventies, we realized that we
should not do a building. The people walking on the sidewalks,
walking in the streets, living in Manhattan, are so much intimidated
by structures that any art or any architectural building would
compete with these elements, which are part of the long panorama
of Manhattan. Even the great architecture has no striking presence
here because it's part of the ensemble. This is probably one
of the main reasons we start to focus . . .
Jeanne-Claude: As we lived in New York, more and more years,
and started to know New York better, and traveling all over
the world, we realized that New York is the most walking city
in the world. And where do people walk leisurely? In the park,
and which park? Central Park.
Christo: Also the greatness of the site. All our projects work
in that, really, the importance of the site, the site is really
the meaning of the project, the forces and the logistics, and
the site is incredible. . .
Jeanne-Claude: The name of The Gates, we did not invent. It
comes from Central Park. Mr. Vaux and Mr. Olmsted surrounded
Central Park with a stone wall. The wall interrupts from time
to time so that you can enter the park. It's only an interruption,
but they called them "gates," and they gave names to those gates
- the gates of the boys, of the girls, of the soldiers, of the
mariners - they called them "gates." So the word comes from
them, from Central Park.
The Project
Christo: I remember I had a discussion with Gordon Davis [then
commissioner of parks and recreation for the City of New York].
He said, "Why don't you pick another park?" This is the only
park that's extremely cut out of any natural forms. Riverside
Park. You have the Hudson River, Battery Park you have Hudson
Bay, Prospect Park has big houses and gardens, with vegetation
of the trees, it is diluted with private gardens, very rich
properties around Prospect Park in Brooklyn. All the pink on
the map around Central Park is buildings. It is absolutely cut
out, and this great contrast between artificial, man-made, grid
system against a more organic vegetation, and a serpentine-type
walkways system.
The first drawing to be shown in the .Metropolitan Museum exhibition
is the drawing from 1979 called The Thousand Gates; I don't
have a reproduction of that. We never reproduced it, but of
course it will be reproduced in the Metropolitan Museum catalogue.
The gates were only twelve feet tall and very curiously enough,
again, it shows how much of our work often comes from previous
projects. The gates were coming from Running Fence. You will
see the drawings like that - two poles, third pole… cable here,
and the fabric is hanging like Running Fence on cables. That
is the first drawing of the gates.
Now, the rectangular shape of the poles reflects the rectangular
shape of the city blocks; you can see this very well, all this
black shadow of the city blocks, hundreds of city blocks all
around Central Park. With the fabric attached only at the upper
part of the gates, moving in all directions, the .wind moves
it sensually to reflect the serpentine character of the walkwav
system, and the naked branches of the tree, all these contrasts
between the geometry of the city, the regularity, very strict
regularity of the city. . .
Jeanne-Claude: The gates, our work of art, is absolutely for
Central Park. It is site-specific, it couldn't be any more specific,
even its name.
Christo: Now the interesting thing about the process, how that
developed, in the beginning the poles were very skinnv, and
the pole was only supporting the fabric , and more and more
through the years, we discovered that the poles need to have
this commanding dimension, that there should be thicker poles,
because they're a very important part of that space.
Jeanne-Claude: It's a sculpture, not just a support for fabric.
Christo: Basically, creating that inner space because you walk
through that inner space and, of course, the thickness, the
wall, should be much more visible. This is why from the two-inch
poles they came to be five-by- five inch square poles.
Fineberg: So, the geometry of the frame itself is almost like
the city blocks. And the fabric is like the organic quality
of the park caught in the middle. If you look at that map, the
map has the geometric outline of Central Park like the shape
of the individual gates.
Christo: And of course it would be incrediblv beautiful to see
that, because in the .winter days when you have the naked branches
of the trees, they are so rich in their movement. You don't
see the branches covered with leaves in summer, it's like a
jungle, but in the winter. . . that contrast will be much greater.
That contrast between the branches of the trees, the walkway
system, and of course, extremely commanding gates. And naturally
it was important that the gates would grow in thickness, little
by little through the years. . .
Jeanne-Claude: And in height. Because until five years ago,
the gates were fifteen feet tall, now they are sixteen feet
tall. And those poor things started at twelve feet tall. And
some newspapers are still writing, still in the Wall Street
Journal that we have reduced the project.
Creating A Precedent
Jeanne-Claude: Gordon Davis in his thick book [refusing to grant
a permit for the project in the early 1980s) said (giving us
a permit) would create a precedent.
Christo: And there would be a line of strange people. . .
Jeanne-Claude: Now, he even compared it, he said, if someone
wants a motorcycle race, I will have to say yes because we said
yes for The Gates. All right, the years move on. Now, we have
commissioner of parks and recreation, Benepe, who likes us.
And we have the park's administrator, Douglas Blonsky, who likes
us. But they have to protect themselves. So now they went exactly
reverse, now, indeed, our contract with the city has created
a precedent, a precedent they can use. Which is, any artist
who is going to pay for himself; remove everything, . . .
Christo: And give money to the park. . .
Jeanne-Claude: . . . restore the park, recycle the material,
give $3 million to the park, which we are doing, then, under
all those precedents, then we would say yes. Now, they have
a good precedent to protect the park.
Christo: And, the precedent is draconian.
Jeanne-Claude: So now they are happy to have a precedent behind
which they can retrench and say, oh wait, you don't fulfill
all these conditions.
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