My son and ex went up to NYC to see "The Gates" this weekend and I don't know exactly how to talk about it with my son, who is 8. While I have not seen it in person, I did look through the New York Times multimedia presentation of the exhibit, and my reaction is that "The Gates" is a colossal, and narcissistic waste of $21,000,000. It kind of reminded me of one of the many propaganda exhibitions regularly on display in China, only not as well done. It also reminded me of an over sized piece from my son's Hot Wheels race track - done over and over again, ad nausea.
Twenty one million dollars would fund a lot of quality art, or if your Mr. Christo, one simple minded display that will all be 'recycled' rather than sold or in any way make a positive contribution to America's appreciation of art. I was involved in the creation of a highly regarded contemporary art gallery and I've seen a lot of wonderful art from poor starving artists. We went up to NYC with a rental truck to save 30 works from an artist who lost her studio and couldn't even keep her paintings anymore, so she was going to destroy them. So I am hardly anti-art. But in my opinion, "The Gates" and Christo himself are way overrated.
Phooey!!!
Here is an interesting NYTimes link to a story about the exhibit. Children are far more honest about their observations, it would seem.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/17/arts/design/17kids.html
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