Saturday, February 12, 2005

New York Times: The Gates in Central Park




The New York Times > Arts > An Appraisal: Billowy Gift to New York: a 23-Mile Saffron Ribbon

The New York Times might rave about the gates in Central Park. I just say they look like huge orange pilons with a little bit of fabric.

The stands look like they are forcing people to walk underneath them on the path. So it would seem if you put up metal frames and attach some funky orange tent canvas to them that people will stay on the paths and off the wintering grass. Perhaps this was the idea of the Central Park big wigs who want to save the grass in Central Park.

True their are some pretty spots of these "gates" in areas, but mostly the bright orange colour stands out like a sore thumb and blocks the views of some of the buildings that surround central park. These same buildings provide a great opportunity for pictures to show nature within one of the world's most populous cities.

I say this is a big waste of $20 million. But at least it didn't come out of my pocket as a taxpayer of New York City, because at least the artists took it upon themselves to fund the "artistry" themselves. To this I say, thank goodness the hardworking city taxpayer was not fleeced.

3 comments:

  1. My only comment on this one... oh dear English teacher... remember your homonyms...
    their, there, they're....
    and choose the right one.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ALWAYS A CRITIC. oops to many capitals.....

    always a critic

    oops didn't capitalize or puntcualize my work....

    :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Aparently I am not the only one that doesn't like "the Gates". Another viewer, from the New York Times on February 15, 2005:

    To the Editor:

    While I appreciate Michael Kimmelman's thoughtful appraisal of Christo's and Jeanne-Claude's "Gates" (front page, Feb. 13), surely I am not the only New Yorker who found "the first great public art event of the 21st century" to be evocative of nothing so much as 23 miles of traffic cones.

    Rudolph Delson
    Brooklyn, Feb. 13, 2005

    ReplyDelete

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