New York – It takes a lot to get noticed in New York. If you’re not a politician, you have to do something really, really big to be known outside your immediate social circle.
The artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude are doing something really, really big. The husband-and-wife team have been on television. They’ve been in the newspapers. They’ve been in New York Magazine and The New York Times. They’re pals with the mayor, and they’re busy right this minute redecorating Central Park’s 843 acres, lining 23 miles of its 58 miles of walkways with 7,500, 16-foot-tall vinyl gates from which 7,500 saffron-colored fabric panels will hang.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude (they discarded their last names years ago) call their project “The Gates” and visualize it as a yellow-orange river glimmering among bare tree branches. On Saturday (weather permitting) their work of 26 years will be fully unveiled. Fabric panels, spaced at 12-foot intervals except where low-lying branches make that impossible, will be unfurled. They will remain in place until Feb. 27. Then, on Feb. 28, the entire construction will be taken apart and most of the materials recycled.
Millions of people from all over the world are expected to visit the free spectacle during its brief existence. Visitors can take guided trolley tours and walking tours of the park (see information box on Page 8T).
Central Park, where all this is going on, isn’t just another park. It’s the heart of Manhattan and, some would say, the lungs, where people who live and work on this small, crowded island catch a glimpse of nature and find respite from its cacophony and pressures. It’s both a National Historic Landmark and a New York City Landmark.
The project couldn’t go forward until government officials and community leaders were satisfied that Central Park would emerge unscathed.
Though Christo and Jeanne-Claude have lived in New York City since 1964, they are known for their works elsewhere – for instance, wrapping the Reichstag in Berlin; surrounding 11 islands in Biscayne Bay, Fla., with pink fabric; and even hanging a huge orange nylon curtain over Rifle Gap in Colorado in 1972. It was taken down after a day because of 60-mph winds.
The artists accept no sponsors for their work and earn nothing from the sale of books and memorabilia connected with their multimillion-dollar projects. They are financed entirely by the sale of studies, preparatory drawings and collages, scale models and the like. Some of the preparatory drawings for “The Gates,” for instance, have been purchased by museums for as much as $600,000 each.
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| Getty Images / Evan Agostini |
| Artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude attend an Urban Visionaries dinner in New York in December honoring them. They have lived in New York since 1964. |
In a telephone interview, Jeanne-Claude reflected on “The Gates” project and on other aspects of her and Christo’s lives together.
Q: Why did you choose Central Park for “The Gates” installation?
A: In 1964, when we arrived in New York City, we were most impressed with the skyline of Manhattan and the skyscrapers. We went to see the owners of the buildings at 20 Exchange Place and 2 Broadway, and we showed them drawings and photo montages and collages of what their buildings would look like if wrapped. They thought we were lunatics. Later we tried to wrap No. 1 Times Square at 42nd Street (the Allied Chemical building). The owners were not amused. We tried to wrap the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum in New York. We were not given permission.
So we went far away from New York. In 1969, we did the Wrapped Coast in Australia. That was the farthest away we went, but there were other projects in Switzerland and Colorado. In 1976, we were completing the Running Fence in Sonoma and Marin counties, California. When we looked back to New York, we realized that our interest had switched from the buildings to the people of New York walking.
There are hundreds of thousands of people walking on the sidewalks. We thought maybe we could try to obtain permission to do a work of art of the sidewalks. But we realized, we would never get permission. We are realistic people. The only way we could do this was to go where people walk leisurely, in the parks.
Q: Is this the longest that any of your projects has taken to come to fruition?
A: No. In 1998, when we completed Wrapped Trees, Foundation Beyeler and Berower Park, Riehen-Basel, Switzerland, it had taken us 32 years. We have completed 18 projects. “The Gates” will be No. 19. In the meantime, we have abandoned 38 projects. They are no longer in our hearts. We lost interest.
Q: What do you expect you will feel on Feb. 12 when the panels are unfurled?
A: Christo and I will feel exactly as when a baby is born and the doctor says, ‘It’s a girl!’ We will feel, ‘It’s “The Gates”!’
Q: Where will you be on that day?
A: We will be all over the place. We will walk and walk and walk, holding hands … the 23 miles.
Q: It’s difficult enough to have a long marriage, much less a creative, collaborative marriage. How do you manage that?
A: We are the best screamers in the world. That is how we force each other to think twice. It’s simply love for each other and a love for art. We have fought many battles to get many permits together. We have succeeded in joy and beauty. We have the same wishes, the same defeats. And we are the father and mother of the same son (Cyril Christo, a poet and writer who lives in New Mexico).
I think I am a very lucky lady. Christo is lucky too. My mother was teasing me – we (Christo and Jeanne-Claude) are born on the same day (June 13, 1935) at the same hour. She said you can save on the birthday cakes.
Q: Do you have any favorites among your projects?
A: Each project is so very different. They are like a child of ours. We do not have a favorite. Each one has their own particular quality.
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| Getty Images / AFP |
| One of Christo’s renderings of “The Gates,” his latest collaboration with wife Jeanne-Claude, previews the 23 miles of fabric panels in New York’s Central Park. They will hang for 16 days beginning Saturday. |
Q: Were there ever times when you thought “The Gates” would never happen?
A: Oh, yes. Until three years ago, we were telling our friends that Over the River (the Arkansas River in Colorado) would be our next work. We thought we would never have permission for “The Gates.” Then the miracle happened. An old friend and a fan of our projects, Michael R. Bloomberg, was elected mayor of New York. We never applied for “The Gates” since we had been refused in 1981. His office contacted us 2 1/2 months after the inauguration.
Q: And then everything was easy?
A: It’s not so easy to have to write a 43-page contract with the city of New York. And we had to give a $3 million donation to Central Park.
Q: How do you manage to come up with this money?
A: We spend everything we have. We live in a way that most 25-year-old artists would not accept. Christo’s studio is on the same fifth floor as it has been since we moved into this building in 1964. We have no elevator. My kitchen looks like no American-born woman would accept. It was built with Christo’s two hands. We love it.
Q: Each of your projects must present different, and sometimes unexpected, engineering problems?
A: We have a wonderful chief engineer, Vince Davenport (chief engineer and director of construction) and his wife, Jonita, who is project director. This is the fifth project they’ve done with us. They have tried to think of absolutely everything. Of course, little things come up. Until three months ago, we were hoping that “The Gates” would cost $20 million. Now we’re hoping that it will not be more than $21 million.
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Q: Oh, well. What’s another million? Where are you going to get it from?
A: We’re spending everything we have plus everything we could borrow from the bank. We are our own art dealers. We sell to museums, private collectors and galleries worldwide. We sell works of the ’50s and ’60s – our wrapped objects. When Christo first did them, no one wanted them. We sell preparatory works, collages and drawings of “The Gates” and Over the River, Colorado. When we sell those, the money goes to pay the manufacturers. There are 5,000 tons of steel in “The Gates,” equivalent to two-thirds of the steel in the Eiffel tower. There are 60 miles of vinyl poles. We had to pay for the aluminum corners and the fabric, which had to be sewn. Then there’s insurance, but the most expensive part is always the labor. Everyone gets paid. There are 600 installation workers.
The workers are in project uniforms designed by Christo (the workers have been in uniform for all the projects). They are divided in teams of eight. Each team has 100 gates for which they are responsible. On Feb. 12 (weather permitting) each team will open the cocoons that hold the fabric panels. It takes only a few seconds to open a cocoon, but a long time to pick up the large, heavy cardboard tubes and pick up the cocoon and bring it to a different bin – there are two different types of recycling.
Q: How long do you think this is going to take?
A: We don’t know how much time. We’ve never done this before. Christo says one morning. I say one day. He’s usually right.
The details
GETTING AROUND
The best way to see “The Gates” is on foot. There is no admission charge. Warming huts will be set up at visitor centers throughout the park. They will sell maps and souvenirs.
Trolleys will loop the park between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., from 59th Street to 110th Street. People can get off and reboard at any stop.
Trolley tickets can be purchased at the southeast entrance of the park (59th Street and Fifth Avenue); $20 (adults); $10 (children 12 and under).
Public buses run along the perimeter of the park, down Fifth Avenue or up Central Park West.
Private trolley tours will be offered weekdays Feb. 14-Feb. 25. The charge is $2,000 for a maximum of 40 people.
Group walking tours are offered daily except Tuesdays and Thursdays. The fee is $250 for up to 15 people and $20 per person for 16 or more.
BOOKS ABOUT “THE GATES”
“Christo & Jeanne-Claude: On the Way to “The Gates,” Central Park, New York City.” An essay and interviews by Jonathan Fineberg. More than 200 illustrations. Published by Yale University Press in association with The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Issued in conjunction with the Metropolitan Museum’s 2004 exhibition documenting the evolution of “The Gates.” Paperback, $29.95.
On Feb. 18, 7-8:30 p.m., Christo and Jeanne-Claude will sign copies of the book in the museum’s book shop.
“Christo and Jeanne-Claude: “The Gates, Central Park, New York City, 1979-2005.” Introduction by Anne L. Strauss. Picture commentary by Jonathan Henery. Photographs by Wolfgang Volz. Taschen. Paperback, $20.
INFORMATION
On Christo and Jeanne-Claude and “The Gates”:
On Central Park (a map showing the locations of The Gates as well as park landmarks, visitor centers and restrooms):
The Central Park Conservancy is selling a more detailed map ($5) and a booklet with highlights of the project, artist renderings, a biography of the artists and past projects ($7). Combined price, $10;
On New York: NYC & Co. is the city’s visitors bureau; 212-484-1222; Visitor Information Centers are at 810 Seventh Ave. (at 53rd Street), at City Hall Park (the intersection of Park Row and Broadway), in the State Office Building Plaza at 163 W. 125th St. (at Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard in Harlem) and in Chinatown at the triangle where Canal, Walker and Baxter streets meet.
