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RIP Christo

bruto said:
It's a wrap.
Click to expand...

Well done.

I was in Sydney when he wrapped up a section of the coast. Surprising in those deep, dark, repressed days of the 60s there was general support of and interest in his work.
 
I should add that although I couldn't resist the urge to be glib I really liked his stuff, and know a couple of people who, though skeptical at first, found his Central Park "The Gates" very effective.
 
I knew someone who, I think, shared with many a skepticism about his validity as an artist, but also, like many apparently, changed her mind when she actually went to Central Park and walked through his installation there.

There's a certain sort of art that is hard to define, but that makes sense when you're actually in it.

I recall many years ago, in Hartford, CT, an artist got a big grant to do an outdoor sculpture in the yard of a large apartment complex, and he made what seemed a simple arrangement of huge boulders, which he had chosen and procured and moved at considerable expense. Howls and uproars erupted and letters to the paper blossomed as people condemned the artist and the host and the gullibility of everyone concerned. Eventually the furor died down, and a little later, it became apparent that people really liked it. In some way not entirely definable, it made sense and it became a part of what the park was about.

A few years ago a local artist got a fairly small grant to arrange a substantial set of reflectors over a couple of miles in the median of a local highway, and all sorts of fuss was again raised about wasted money and con artists and whatnot. But when she was done, the experience of driving along that stretch of road really was different. Many were sorry that it ended up temporary.

Not too long before that my wife and I went to a museum that included a show of sculpture by someone named Ursula von Rydingsvard (I think spelled that way). It was entirely abstract, seeming nearly abitrary, laminated wood formed coarsely with a chainsaw, I think. At the entrance was what looked like a giant spoon, and I thought, "oh no, some kind of sententious feminist symbolism...." but inside were a variety of strange objects, arranged in such a way that we found it truly impossible not to walk around them and look at them and into them from al angles. The message may have been in an indecipherable tongue, but it was loud and clear. Whether you understood it or not, there was no doubt that we were in a room full of art.

So yeah, I like art that challenges you to think about why it's art, and I liked Christo.
 
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bruto said:
I knew someone who, I think, shared with many a skepticism about his validity as an artist, but also, like many apparently, changed her mind when she actually went to Central Park and walked through his installation there.

There's a certain sort of art that is hard to define, but that makes sense when you're actually in it.

I recall many years ago, in Hartford, CT, an artist got a big grant to do an outdoor sculpture in the yard of a large apartment complex, and he made what seemed a simple arrangement of huge boulders, which he had chosen and procured and moved at considerable expense. Howls and uproars erupted and letters to the paper blossomed as people condemned the artist and the host and the gullibility of everyone concerned. Eventually the furor died down, and a little later, it became apparent that people really liked it. In some way not entirely definable, it made sense and it became a part of what the park was about.

A few years ago a local artist got a fairly small grant to arrange a substantial set of reflectors over a couple of miles in the median of a local highway, and all sorts of fuss was again raised about wasted money and con artists and whatnot. But when she was done, the experience of driving along that stretch of road really was different. Many were sorry that it ended up temporary.

Not too long before that my wife and I went to a museum that included a show of sculpture by someone named Ursula von Rydingsvard (I think spelled that way). It was entirely abstract, seeming nearly abitrary, laminated wood formed coarsely with a chainsaw, I think. At the entrance was what looked like a giant spoon, and I thought, "oh no, some kind of sententious feminist symbolism...." but inside were a variety of strange objects, arranged in such a way that we found it truly impossible not to walk around them and look at them and into them from al angles. The message may have been in an indecipherable tongue, but it was loud and clear. Whether you understood it or not, there was no doubt that we were in a room full of art.

So yeah, I like art that challenges you to think about why it's art, and I liked Christo.
Click to expand...

Along similar lines the City of Toronto renovated a parking lot some years back and turned it into a parkette; the main feature of which is a huge boulder bought, transported and "installed" at great expense. There was a moderate outcry at the time (in which I participated because it reduced the number of parking spaces in an area in which I frequently parked) that died down and the chunk-'o-granite is tolerated, if not loved, these days.

Ah. Here it is:

https://www.blogto.com/sports_play/2012/08/toronto_parks_village_of_yorkville_park/

My memory turns out to be mostly correct. :cool:
 
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