"Disappointingly I can't see your pictures as my firm restricts certain categories (e.g., the category ""Web sense"" is filtered, whatever that means). But I'm sure they're great!"
Gates
Tue, 02/15/2005 - 7:12am
#51
Anthony's photos
Tue, 02/15/2005 - 8:39am
#52
Sorry you can't see them
If you have an internet connection at home, you could try looking from there later.
Tue, 02/15/2005 - 2:23pm
#53
Nice pix!
"Thanks, Anthony. Makes me want to walk the course to see it up close, rather than just zipping by once on the loop road.
Which I did last Saturday. All I could think then was, ""Gee it's cool so many people are in the park,"" and ""Too bad I don't like orange.""
I bet the act of walking through the gates, and the phenomenon of this huge Happening, have more to do with the work's ""meaning"" than just the gaudy orange poles. I'm okay with that.
But cynicism is a hard habit to break. After riding out the park on Saturday, we passed the crowds winding around Riverside Church in honor of the late Ossie Davis. So what springs to mind but the observation that here are all these white people flocking to Central Park in awe of a bunch of orange squares, while black folks are lined up to pay homage to a legendary human being. Barbara Spandorf has already scolded me for this ""simplistic"" thought.
"
Tue, 02/15/2005 - 6:17pm
#54
dissenting opinion
"Well I will be the dissenting opinion. I am not so enamored of the ""gates"".
I'm not sure what exactly they are, but they ain't art. Pretty, yes. Fun to walk under? Yes. An event? Yes. But not art. I see them as a crass commercial project masquerading as art whose real purpose is to make money for the creator and increase his fame so his next project can make him even more money."
Tue, 02/15/2005 - 8:22pm
#55
"What to make of ""The Gates""?"
"First, I'll agree to some extent with Robert Gray. ""The Gates"" are most successful when they are in large groups with no gaps. I find them particualrly appealing around the 70's where they line the inside of the drive then diverge in 2 lines, then 3 and seem to be everywhere. I find that quite impressive. I also like the fact that in each new context that they appear - around a lake, around a hill, around a softball field - and the way they interact with the park's natural phenomena - sunlight, wind - they offer a different aesthetic quality.
The problem many people have is how to evaluate them. Many talk about what they are but bemoan the fact that they are not ""art."" I say, so what. Why do they have to be art? For me, ""Pretty,"" ""Fun to walk under"" and ""An Event"" are plenty. I'd also add inspiring and exhilirating and I love the sense of community they seem to have brought to the park and the city. As far as being ""a crass commercial project masquerading as art whose real purpose is to make money..."" I think there are far easier ways to accomplish this end then hassling with the city and Parks Dept. for 20 years and spending $20 million. I think if people stopped trying to read too much into ""The Gates"" and just take in the experience, they would provide a great deal of satisfaction."
Wed, 02/16/2005 - 5:21am
#56
Along with becoming a 'New Yorker' comes the onus to complain about those things that we perceive diminish the 'New York Experience.' To those who feel infringed by the Gates I ask them to consider them a guest you are ambivalent about who comes to stay with you for a few weeks but is never coming this way again. You will feel put on but they will make you see your life a little differently and will soon be gone. If you put on a positive face the experience will give you a fresh perspective on things.
Central Park has changed. Proportion and distance now actively come into question. When the wind blows I see Buddhist prayer flags. I see the park breathing.
Wed, 02/16/2005 - 6:15am
#57
"""When the wind blows I see Buddhist prayer flags. I see the park breathing.""
Waiter, I'll drink what he's drinking.
:-)"
Wed, 02/16/2005 - 2:09pm
#58
I think the installation is breathtaking...
'Central Park has changed. Proportion and distance now actively come into question. When the wind blows I see Buddhist prayer flags. I see the park breathing.'
Thank you - I think that is so beautifully put.
Wed, 02/16/2005 - 2:28pm
#59
well put
I second Linda's comments. And I see wisdom regarding your analogy to the house guest who we will never see after 2 weeks. Thanks.
Thu, 02/17/2005 - 9:24am
#60
I'm with Hank!
(But then, he's a runner! :)
Thu, 02/17/2005 - 2:44pm
#61
The function of art
Enough of all this artsy-fartsy opinating, racist-baiting, ego blathering and blah blahing. Let us consider what the function of art is.
The functiion of art is instruction. Art is a diagram, a comic book, a Complete Illiterate's Guide to knowledge, transmitted with pictures.
The first known artist drew on a cave wall. It was a picture of an animal. We cannot be sure, but it's a good bet he was instructing one of three things:
1. This is the animal I hope to kill.
2. This is the animal I did kill (and you didn't because you are not nearly the hunter I am.)
3. This is the one that got away. (Or the herd that got away.)
Later, art instructed people about religion. This is a saint. You can tell because he has a halo around his head. He is going to heaven. You can tell because he is pointing to the sky.
This is hell. These are all the terrible things that will happen to you if you sin and go to hell. (Thank you, Hieronymous Bosch.) This is a man getting his belly sawed open by a shark. This is a sinner roasting on a spit. This is another sinner, with disgusting snakes coming out of his nostrils, to his own horror
In short, art was a comic book, a form of visual communication that got the point across a bit more quickly than words, most especially to people who didn't know much about how to read, but who knew Hell when they saw it.
Even into the 19th and early 20th Centuries, impressionists were still, in essence, doing comic books (although slightly weird ones) to instruct us:
• This is how the world is made -- of teensy-tiny splotches of color. Somehow the eye puts them all together into solid shapes. Step back from my painting and you will see what I mean.
• This is to remind you that the whole is the sum of its parts. If I put part of your face on your bellybutton, and part of your nose on your ear, it is still more or less something like you. See what I mean?
But then, art got taken over by fools, idiots, poseurs and outright con men. They have filled the walls of the Whitney and the Guggenheim with horrid stuff, such as a white box or a white circle on a white background, the total effect of which is now called art.
These charlatans are hoodwinking the public (who deserve better) and art buyers for rich public corporations (whose stockholders ought to hang the Boards of Directors instead of tolerating the hanging of horrid excuses for art.)
And finally there is Christo and his damnable curtains.
A bunch of shower curtains hanging in Central Park is not art. It is simply a bunch of shower curtains hanging in Central Park. It instructs as to nothing. It reveals nothing, except how a bunch of shower curtains look in Central Park.
Does it draw crowds? Admittedly. Do the crowds spend money as they come to see this so-called art? Assuredly. Did the Emperor spend a fortune on imaginary clothes? You bet your sweet saddle cover.
Today's leading artist is R. Crumb. Today's leading charlatan, even though he is a benificent charlatan, is Christo.
And there is no ancient Montenegrin saying I know that even begins draw a moral from all this.
Well, enough. I've finished two cups of cappucino at an Internet shop in New Orleans writing this. I am currently riding from Palestine, Texas to New York on a cheap Huffy, my Colnago having been totaled by a hostile pickup truck driver, and I have no more time today to educate my fellow cyclists. Ride safe and focus on the traffic, not art.
Your Pal,
Etoain
Fri, 02/18/2005 - 2:45pm
#62
If an artist says it's art, it's art.
"Art has many purposes - to inspire, to awe, to irritate, to provoke thought or comment...
A glance at any few posts on this message board show that The Gates have done all that and more.
Grace Glueck, a New York Times critic who covers the ""visual arts"" - which encompass not only traditional and abstract painting and sculpture, but also such postmodernist inventions as installation, video, and performance ""art"" - further explains that something is a work of art if it is ""intended as art, presented as such...""
I personally find The Gates a remarkable work of art. But for those who don't I posit the view that even bad art is nonetheless art.
Happy Trails."
Tue, 02/22/2005 - 9:30am
#63
Grace Glueck is an idiot
"In the post above, someone has had the lack of intellectual insight to post:
>>Grace Glueck, a New York Times critic who covers the ""visual arts"" - which encompass not only traditional and abstract painting and sculpture, but also such postmodernist inventions as installation, video, and performance ""art"" - further explains that something is a work of art if it is ""intended as art, presented as such...""<<
In other words, if I declare myself an artist, steal a passenger airliner and crash it into a building, killing thousands of people, and then declare the result a work of art, it is a priori a work of art?
No wonder the ""world of art"" is filled with arrogant poseurs, con men, and suckers who will pay $2 million of a canvas that in 100 years will be worth 47 cents.
""Those who can, do. Those who can't go to art school.""
--Uncle Ygor Miscovic
But enough of this. Back aboard my cheap and wide-tired Huffy to continue pedaling back to New York. How I mourn my Colnago. Now there was a work of....craftsmanship.
Your Pal,
Etoain
"
Tue, 02/22/2005 - 12:19pm
#64
Since I don't post anonymously
"...that someone above is me...Linda.
'In the post above, someone has had the lack of intellectual insight to post'
OH...Boo Hoo...
Here's a saying for you (American, Montenegrin...who cares):
""Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.""
To those who may not be familiar with R. Crumb, to whom you reference in your previous post, he started Weirdo Comics in 1981. Weirdo issue #1 of Spring 1981 was Legends Of The Five Rings, Secrets of The Lion which featured the character Etoain Shrdlu. A ficticious name...I'm shocked.
And your example of 'if I declare myself an artist' is really ludicrous. But since it is so absurd I would kindly suggest that you go a few rounds with a shrink to work out all that anger. Maybe you'll feel artistic afterwards. Or at least able to draw a few comic strips."
Tue, 02/22/2005 - 5:23pm
#65
Sorry Etoain...I had the wrong comic book title
its actually TV Blues with Etoain Shrdlu
Tue, 02/22/2005 - 6:52pm
#66
Etoain Shrdlu
The comic book character was named for Etoain, not vice versa. Etoain is the brother of Qwerty and the nephew of Dvorak. Relation to Skrivekugel - if any - uncertain.
Wed, 02/23/2005 - 5:32am
#67
Words, Buddhism, and Etaoin
"Upon further (Google) review:
A) According to how Shrdlu got its name: the ""frequency order of letters in English is ETAOINSHRDLU..."" via http://hci.stanford.edu/~winograd/shrdlu/name.html.
B) World Wide Words says:
http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-eta1.htm
""the old Linotype keyboards had their letters arranged in decreasing order of the frequency with which they appear in the language, making the first two rows ETAOIN SHRDLU. This curious phrase is recorded both in the Oxford English Dictionary and also in the Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary. Linotype operators who made a typing error would often run their fingers down the keyboard to cast nonsense to fill out the line. The resulting cast slug was usually put back in the pot to be melted down and reused, but sometimes, in the heat of composition, the mistake was missed and ended up being printed. Each half, and the complete phrase, has occasionally been borrowed to mean something that is nonsense or absurd; the first part is recorded in a story by James Thurber from 1931...""
Also it states: ""The Naughty Princess by Anthony Armstrong, written in 1945, in which there is a whimsical short story called Etaoin and Shrdlu which ends “And Sir Etaoin and Shrdlu married and lived so happily ever after that whenever you come across Etaoin’s name even today it’s generally followed by Shrdlu’s”.
C) By way of England:
http://www.etaoin.co.uk/
Imagine, Shrdlu's also a peace lover, a flute musician and a young lady who has a sister living in Southeast Asia...
Maybe we should ask if she's a frame builder or markets bike stuff...
Whether Etaoin Shrdlu is a 'nonsense phrase, an absurd or unintelligible utterance,' the anon cyclist selected a unique pseudo name.
Now we need someone to humble or enlighten Etaoin by ""by having it typeset every book on Buddhism. The story ends: ""See, George, it believes what it sets. So I fed it a religion that convinced it of the utter futility of all effort and action and the desirability of nothingness...It doesn't care what happens to it and it doesn't even know we're here. It's archived Nirvana, and it's sitting there contemplating its cam stud."""
Wed, 02/23/2005 - 11:34am
#68
Precision
Etoain Shrdlu is a regular poster on this board. To my knoweldge, Etaoin Shrdlu is not.
Wed, 02/23/2005 - 4:58pm
#69
it doesn't matter
"hey, so what's a letter or two off? The spellcheck's not working or someone had a bike ride of pain & delight.
The ultimate NYCC anon. poster bike frame, labeled on the down tube:
""Etaoin Shrdlu"" on the left
""Etoain Shrdlu"" on the right
It would be a good short film subject: have someone ride CP laps & ""The Gates"" with Etaoin / Etoain bike.
Runner up: B. Traven, after the mysterious & brilliant European author of Mexican novels & stories.
"
Tue, 02/22/2005 - 12:35pm
#70
I appreciate your comments but: 1) the critic said the work must be intended and presented as a work of art, etc. whereas your project includes major crimes such as mass murder and terrorism etc. so it is hard to get around those criminal (as opposed to artistic) intentions; and 2) you would need to declare the result of your acts a work of art before you crash into the building, not after.
Tue, 02/22/2005 - 12:31pm
#71
If an artist says it's art, it's art
"""If an artist says it's art, it's art.""
That's an excellent summary of the philosophy of art criticism belonging to a certain school, which I call the ""Urinal School."" A recent survey shows that this philosophy has exerted immense influence on artists and critics."
Fri, 02/18/2005 - 1:43pm
#72
After 1 week and 3 viewings
"my impression of The Gates is decidedly mixed.
I like the concept, I like the construction, the engineering, and the layout of the gates.
But I don't like the color. The artistic renderings had greater expectations than what resulted. The color is too much ""construction Zone"" They don't shimmer as promised. I would have liked a golden or reddish color if the monocolor scheme was mandated. But why wasn't a series of graduated warm colors used? Moving from a dark color at a low elevation to an almost white at the crest of a hill would have been much more provocative -- or have another hill in reverse. The opportunity to make a painting in the park was missed -- That would have been spectacular.
But for what it fails in the daylight, somehow works at night. The dark passageways of the park at night are transformed into viaducts. I had much more pleasure going throught the gates after sunset.
Thats enough for this week.
By the way, not all Buddhists have prayer flags. In my practice, there are no such accrutrements.
"
Fri, 02/18/2005 - 1:45pm
#73
shimmering
Go see them at sunrise. They do indeed shimmer (Anthony, can you imbed that photo I sent you? I don't know how to do it.)
Sat, 02/19/2005 - 4:23am
#74
I'm thinking Tibetan Buddhists, not Canarsie Buddhists... (nm)
Sat, 02/19/2005 - 5:36am
#75
that got a laugh
and steven segal should smile more.
Sat, 02/19/2005 - 8:12am
#76
great art inspires
see the following for proof that great art inspires great art:
http://www.not-rocket-science.com/gates.htm
Sat, 02/19/2005 - 11:01pm
#77
Well, OK art inspires art (Brilliant!)
These gates don't shimmer either.
Wed, 02/23/2005 - 7:19pm
#78
Intelligent review
Mark Stevens in New York magazine:
http://www.newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/arts/art/reviews/11134/index.html
Sun, 02/27/2005 - 2:20pm
#79
Bravo, Christo!
"This morning, I got doored neared the Gates.
I was creeping along on my bike amid the crowds at 60th St. and Fifth, and swerved around a double-parked cab discharging passengers when the passenger in a triple-parked cab swung his door into my handlebar. I wasn't hurt but, as usual, upset--his chastising me for ""riding in the street"" didn't help, nor his sarcastic ""Have a nice day."" Sheesh.
However disturbing this recurring-nightmare scenario, two minutes later I was under the first Gate, and completely under its spell.
The stark contrast between bright orange flags, brilliant blue sky, and white blanket of snow under a bright sun was perfect. Just perfect.
As I slowly pushed my bike through the thick, leisurely crowd, I thought this must have been just what the artists had intended. How gracious of the weather to cooperate. And on a weekend, no less.
Enchanted, I walked my bike around until I got above the reservoir, where it seemed uncrowded enough to ride--at a walking speed. I saw another lady riding very slowly and asked if anyone said anything to her about it. No, she said, just a jogger. I was passed by a few hostile runners myself.
But most everyone seemed mesmerized, walking around the park as if they'd never seen it. Indeed, I followed a number of paths I didn't know existed. And the Harlem Meer was the big discovery of the day. You miss a lot when you only do laps in the park.
Parkgoers were friendly and relaxed, and I stopped to take more than one photograph for people. Gotta use that art degree somehow.
One monitor (the artists' p.r. crew, holding a stick with a tennis ball on top) told me a million people were estimated to have been in the park the first Sunday it opened. Another said the crew was handing out a million orange swatches of the Gate fabric. A nice little souvenir.
Christo and Jeanne Claude, thanks for the memory."
