The Gates of New York: A Mirage of Memory

The Gates, Christo and Jeanne-Claude.
  Central Park, New York. 2005

     During the cold and bleak wintry month of February 2005, Christo and his wife Jeanne-Claude installed thousands of saffron-color fabric panels suspended from vertical posts throughout Central Park in New York. After more than twenty years of planning, the art installation was approved for a temporary period of sixteen days.  In a press release for the project, Christo described The Gates “like a golden river appearing and disappearing through the bare branches of the trees."1 The footpaths are a permanent feature of the park, but the saffron-posts and billowing fabric accentuated those pathways.  To avoid any permanent environmental impact, Christo’s vertical posts were secured to heavily weighted bases, and not sunk into the earth.  All that remains of the installation project today, is the lasting impression of the art experience (plus drawings, photographs and videos).

     Christo has never been known to dictate the meaning of his artistic endeavors, but he does consistently use fabric on a grand scale.  His persistent use of fabric may have initially been inspired during his adolescence in Bulgaria where he made sketches in his father’s textile factory.2  He explained in an interview about The Gates, “Fabric is like a second skin, it is very related to human existence.  The fabric will move with wind, the water, with the natural elements…like breathing.”3

     Christo Javacheff’s mid-twentieth century artistic education began at the Sofia Academy in Prague and the Vienna Fine Art Academy, but his avant-garde career was launched with his arrival in Paris where he met Jeanne-Claude.4  Since 1961, Christo and Jeanne-Claude have collaborated on many large-scale art projects that include fabric wrapped buildings, bridges and islands.  All of these projects were temporary.  In the past, Christo explained that his “pigments are like all the people and things I need to put together in some fabulous chemistry for the project to come off.”5  The ephemeral quality of his installations has challenged the definition of art. The element of time is also a crucial factor.  Christo has also stated “that my artworks exists physically for only a brief span (which) makes for tremendous exclusivity because in seeing them people share in a complete uniqueness…..They (the art) will never exist again, just like our childhood…..It  is intended to remind people that we are only once in the world and shall never return again.”6  The lasting impressions of The Gates remain as a mirage in one’s memory, along with the fond memories of family, friends and colleagues.

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Endnotes

1 Christo and Jeanne Claude. The Gates. 2005.

http://www.christojeanneclaude.net/projects/the-gates (accessed November 13, 2013).

2 Christo in Paris. VHS. A Maysles Film Production. New York, NY. 1990.

3 Jonathan Fineberg, On the Way to the Gates – Central Park, New York City, (New Haven: Yale  University Press, 2004), 53.

4 Ibid., 197.

5 Eric Shanes, “Christo and the Boundaries of Sculpture,” Apollo: Vol. CXXX no. 330 (August 1989): 110.

6 Ibid., 111.

Art and Music: An American Allegory

Orpheus, Charles Niehaus. 1922

     A colossal bronze sculpture of Orpheus standing on top of a marble base is located on the grounds of historic Fort McHenry adjacent to Baltimore’s harbor.  This classical nude figure with a lyre in hand is derived from ancient Greek mythology, since the musician Orpheus was believed to enchant wild animals in the forest with his songs.
     The sculpture by Niehaus serves as an allegory for American history during the War of 1812 against England. The twenty-four foot high figure was commissioned to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the defense of Baltimore.  Through the allegorical figure of Orpheus, Niehaus paid tribute to American songwriter – Francis Scott Key, who wrote the lyrics to the U.S. National Anthem while on board a British ship in the harbor.  Key was actually an attorney who was part of a team negotiating the release of an American prisoner. Francis Scott Key witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry while he was on board the British ship. His poetic lyrics, entitled The Star Spangled Banner, were aligned to a popular tune by John Stafford Smith, and officially adopted by Congress as the National Anthem in 1931.  The marble base that supports Orpheus is carved with low relief figures that include allegorical personifications of the U.S. Army and Navy.  These figures are represented as musicians.

     The sculptor Charles Henry Niehaus (1855-1935) was born in Ohio and began his studies at the McMicken School of Design in Cincinnati.  He continued formal study at the Royal Academy in Munich, Germany and later moved to Rome where he refined his preference for classical aesthetics. One of his earliest commissions was a full-length, naturalistic sculpture of President James Abram Garfield for the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol.  Niehaus’s career accelerated when he established a studio in New York.  He was also elected to the National Academy of Design. Three of his sculptures are in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Orpheus, "Army" detail of marble base

Orpheus, "Navy" detail of marble base

References:

Charles H. Niehaus. Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery.
     http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artist/?id=3549 
     (accessed October 29, 2013).

James Abram Garfield. U.S. Government Printing Office.
     http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GPO-CDOC-107sdoc11/pdf/GPOCDOC-
     107sdoc11-2-47.pdf (accessed October 29, 2013).

Orpheus, plaque. Fort McHenry. National Park Service, 2010.

Moncrieff, A.R. Hope. A Treasury of Classical Mythology.
      New York: Barnes & Noble, Inc., 1992.

Proske, Beatrice Gilman.  Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture. South Carolina:
      Brookgreen Gardens, 1968.