"The Gates" - the Central Park project

[Gonz]

Everybody that doesn't like this exhibit, remember this...there is a class in college called "Art Apppreciation". It covers all the crapo that sux & why you're too stupid to realize it doesn't suck.

 

[chcr]

Everybody that doesn't like this exhibit, remember this...there is a class in college called "Art Apppreciation". It covers all the crapo that sux & why you're too stupid to realize it doesn't suck.

I took an art appreciation course in college. It doesn't prevent me from recognizing crap (or BS as the case may be )

 

[Leslie]

lol I just saw these on video on Jon Stewart. Seeing them on video as opposed to photos, I finally see it.

They aren't bedsheets at all, but rather some really fantastic orange butcher flaps.

 

[Dave]

i dont know. i thought all those yellow umbrellas in LA and wrapping those islands in pepto-bismol pink plastic was kinda....pointless.
saw 60 minutes episode on that yesterday. they spent $20 million of their money to do that. they make all their money selling his drawings of the art event.
the one big positive i see with their art is a complete lack of political/social commentary.

 

[Inkara1]

Everybody that doesn't like this exhibit, remember this...there is a class in college called "Art Apppreciation". It covers all the crapo that sux & why you're too stupid to realize it doesn't suck.

I took one just this past semester. I still think this "art" is crap.

 

[Lopan]

If they were going for organic style art that would compliment the parks natural colours, why did they choose orange. Maybe they should have asked Andy Goldsworthy to do it

Andy Goldsworthy

 

[abooja]

The amazing thing to me is that, after twenty years of planning and retooling, this crap idea was all they could come up with.

 

[Spirit]

I don't understand it at all. On a windy day, I'd rather listen to the wind in the trees, not the flapping of cloth.
Are they going to hire someone full time to replace the cloths when they break down and look shabby?
What about the hoodlums that'll paint the poles?
Paint the cloths?

Stupid. Thoughtless. An abomination to the eye and to the very definition of *beautification*.

*sigh*

 

[abooja]

Blessedly, the gates will only be on display for a total of sixteen days. And, contrary to popular belief, Central Park is no longer rife with vandals and drug peddlars. Believe me, I looked.

 

[Gonz]

i dont know. i thought all those yellow umbrellas in LA and wrapping those islands in pepto-bismol pink plastic was kinda....pointless.
saw 60 minutes episode on that yesterday. they spent $20 million of their money to do that. they make all their money selling his drawings of the art event.
the one big positive i see with their art is a complete lack of political/social commentary.

Kristo for King

 

[Spirit]

Ah.. it's not a permanent thing? Ok.. well, if that's the case, then

BIG DEAL! Glad my tax dollars aren't gong to that.

 

[Gonz]

I took one just this past semester. I still think this "art" is crap.

but the description of the class was still a good one, eh? Maybe, if you look hard enough, you'll see the brilliance of Warhol & Lichtenstein.

 

[SouthernN'Proud]

Art is in the eye of the beholder. And to this beholder, 20 mil to hang a bunch of bedsheets out in the wind is not art. I see bedsheets hanging outside every day.

Maybe I can go to NYC and get rich...all I gotta do is hang my drawers (skid marks and all) out a window and make some hoity-toity political statement about how it reflects the struggle of the native platypus to survive its cruel habitat in an ever changing world and presto! The bucks come rolling in!





Hmmm......wait a minute here.....

 

[abooja]

Glad my tax dollars aren't gong to that.

Fortunately, my tax dollars have nothing to do with it either. Christo and his significant other, Jeanne Claude, financed it entirely on their own. There would be riots were that not the case, with me leading the charge.

 

[Gonz]

Some woman called Rush today, claiming to have worked on this installation.

CALLER: And so to have this installation, it really livens up the place. But, you know, when I was doing the installation, there were a lot of camera crews, a lot of German camera crews and so I got interviewed, and, you know, they ask you what is your opinion, and I said for me this was a celebration of freedom, because Christo is from Bulgaria originally and Jeanne-Claude, his wife, was from France. Notice they did not become citizens of France. They became citizens of the United States.

For a laugh

RUSH: But I'm getting confused here because I thought a tree was beautiful in and of itself. Why do we have to now gaze around an orange piece of fabric to see that a tree is beautiful? But, see, this is just me. I'm probably too literal to be a fine art connoisseur and as such... But that's, you know, it's a harmless thing. I just think what's funny -- and I don't mean to be putting anybody down here -- I just find it funny to listen to people who think that it's just wonderfully a cultural thing and supremely unique to hang fabric in a park and consider it great art and listen to people explain to us why they consider it so. I just get the biggest kick out of that. Because I think what it adds up to is all these people trying to be the smartest people in the room. They love hearing me say that it's dense and I don't get it because it proves that I'm a simpleton, that I don't see the finer things in life (laughing). It's black and white, yeah. I'm too big. I'm a black-and-white simpleton which is why I don't get the orange shower curtains in the park part.

The best thing to come out of this conversation was aa apt definition of art.

If I Can Do It, It Isn't Art

 

[abooja]

He's totally right. Most of the people I passed in the park last Saturday were having one pretentious conversation after another about this silliness. As I said, all I did was complain, so I had no qualms about some idiot passerby thinking I was a philistine. I know a little something about art. I've studied it. I've enjoyed it my whole life. I even attempt to create it through my sketches and various goofy projects. This ain't it.

 

[abooja]

I should add, the the John Podhoretz article Rush cites is also spot on.

 

[Gonz]

After all, the Times had dubbed it "pure joy" on Sunday, and you don't want to mess with the Times, now, do you?

 

[greenfreak]

Our field trip is still on although it's not going to be as warm on Saturday as it has been. We're going to the Whitney Museum also to see some more art, although I have a feeling it will be somewhat more stimulating than "The Gates".

If we have time, I'd like to stop by the Guggenheim too. I like their exhibits because they're not afraid to show "controversial" work like Mapplethorpe.

 

[Leslie]

I'm glad it's not the whole purpose of your field trip.