The Gates

Sameel Malik

Identification

Title: The Gates

Date Created: February 2005

Artist: Bulgarian artist Christo Yavacheff and French artist Jeanne-Claude

Content

• It has 7,203 Gates that span over 23 miles. • Some Gates have a colored nylon fabric in

between them• Wanted to bring back Japanese torii style and

artwork within NYC but faced ridicule instead.

Patron

• The City of NYC made for it and decided to pay for the local artworks are sense of inspiration and adding of color to the dull city.

• Most of the money also came from Greg Allen and the Artists' pockets

Site

• The Gates are seen at Central Park in NYC and are public to the people since it is pretty big and there is no point in hiding an artwork meant for the people

• Its impact was mostly in the form of ridicule but a few appreciated the artwork’s rich color and vibrance over a “gray city”.

Media/Material

• 5,390 tons of steel, 315,491 feet (96 km) of vinyl tubing, 99,155 square meters of fabric, and 15,000 sets of brackets and hardware were used for the Gates

• Central Park is rarely crowded and the Gates began a landmark by the Media and was a highly visited place.

Scale

• They were huge gates that cost the city $21 Million dollars in the constructions of gates which surround the park for 23 miles.

• It was a large since it was used as a symbol of tranquility and peace when entering a gate.

Purpose• This functions as symbol rather than a tool and

was to portray a center of peace and to add color to a city

• This is used to walk through and “make you feel good” as according to some visitors of the site

• Adds contrasting deep saffron color to a green park

• Was to create and aesthetic piece and was a dream of the Artists to create an artwork in NYC

Style

• Since as a piece of Modernist art, The Gates are heavily Unique but have a distinct connection to past cultures as many modern artworks do.

• The torii gates influence is seen in the steel of the piece. There is Japenese writing visible on the side of the bars of the piece.

Formal Elements• The use of light is huge in this piece in how the

light hits the nylon fabric to create such a “mirage of harmony”

• A Three Dimensional piece with an additive color of deep saffron in the nylon

• There is balance and symmetricality in the placing of the fabric in how each is placed above the person so they can walk through without hitting the fabric.

Other Artworks

• The Umbrella Project– 3,000 umbrellas: half in Cali, half in Japan– Steel rods put in and umbrellas were made– Killed a woman by flying off and a worker in

removal

• The Running Fence• 24.5 miles of a fence made by steel rods and white

nylon• Was made in 1975 then removed

Comparison to the Gates

• The Umbrellas– Both of the artworks were made up of steel rods

and meant as symbols with fabric– Were both made in large industrial cities

• The Running Fence– Both of them have nylon fabric running across and

span for more than 23 miles– Both received ridicule but only one was taken

down

The Gates Removal

• Claude explained that the gates was a temporary piece and will be removed soon from Central Park