The Gates

I suppose you get up to New York City once in a while, Bush? I have to say, I don't quite see you strolling in Central Park with your dog and your secret service patrol, but I'd love to have been there this week to see the latest installment of the Christo/Jeanne-Claude ouevre. Perhaps you heard about The Gates? Christo and Jeanne-Claude have been collaborating on huge public art works for years--always free, always open to anyone who wishes to participate, and always (you'll appreciate this, Bush!) funded entirely by the sale of Christo's drawings. They never apply for or accept a penny of public funds. The works are always ephemeral, too. The artists impose their vision on the landscape or the cityscape for only a brief period of time. Then they're gone, existing only in memory, or in the multiple drawings and photographs that remain, as documentation of the event.

If you haven't heard of their work, Bush, you might want to check out their Running Fence on the Northern California coast? Or, if not, surely the eleven (count 'em!) Surrounded Islands off the Miami coast with their collars of flamingo pink woven polypropylene fabric. Or perhaps the famous Wrapped Reichstag in Berlin, or the Umbrellas spanning the Pacific Ocean, from the spectacular yellow outcropping on the barren Southern California hills, to the massed blue ones in the fertile rice paddies in Japan. I was fortunate enough to see them in both locations, and was thrilled by their sheer, outrageous beauty.

I'll be sorry to miss the Central Park Gates, but the airfare and hotel would be quite an entry fee from here. However, the pictures I've seen look stunning--a passageway of saffron fabric shifting easily in the breeze, with hundreds of visitors enjoying the parade. So I was quite surprised by the animosity of some of the letters in today's New York Times. One outraged New Yorker complains of the "desecration of a sanctuary, a nauseating display of egocentrism"--I do seem to remember that Picasso had something of an ego, too, along with quite a number of other impressively creative minds--"and an unabashed disregard for the cherished respect of nature so assiduously attended to by the workers of Central Park." Phew! I guess the writer of that one is angry, Bush. And while I say she's entitled to her anger (who isn't? It's a spontaneous human feeling that arrives without particular invitation), I kind of wish it were mixed with a little sense of humor and perspective.

There are critics of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's work, to be sure. There are those, like the writer cited above, who accuse them of grandstanding, of imposing on public space, of mistaking the grand gesture for art. There are those who accuse them of abusing the natural environment, suggesting that the Running Fence, for example, could cause severe disruption in the territorial imperatives or the mating habits of local birds. And so on. There are serious critics who do not admire their work for arguable aesthetic reasons. And yet… well, Bush, it is wonderfully joyful work, as you'd see for yourself if you could find the time to make that little trip up to New York. It's fun. It challenges stodgy bureaucracies and received ideas, often taking years to transform what seemed like an impossible dream into actuality. It questions historical assumptions, and is capable, too, of laughing at itself. And for those who do not like it, they can take satisfaction in the knowledge that it will go away.

Anyway, Bush, I thought we deserved a little diversion today from serious affairs of state and global threats. I trust you'll take the time to click on a couple of the links and enjoy the playful inventiveness of these artists' minds.