Pandora’s Box Part 2

by Michael Newberry

… pathetically, only Hope remained inside. In the other version the box held all of humanity’s glories. When she opened the box progress, knowledge, and exaltation vanished into oblivion, forever lost to humanity. Art, in all its forms, plays an exalted role as one of humanity’s glories. It also plays a profoundly personal role. Think, for instance, of the impact your favorite artwork has had on your life. Has it moved you to tears, to resolution, to moments of joy? Have you felt that an artwork was as close to you as a lover, a friend, or a child? Have you imagined what your life would be like without art? Picture your most beloved painting or recall your favorite song or regard your most treasured book and ask yourself what if it had never existed. Would that leave a gaping hole in your soul where once something precious had been? When Pandora opened the box, marvelous things rose up and vanished into space before her eyes. Without grasping the nature of this phenomenon, she unleashed Postmodernism on humanity. Artistic creation is fragile. For most artists creation calls on the limits of their intellectual, sensory, and psychological resources; each artwork is, in essence, the artist’s summation of what is important from all of existence. Additionally, it is usual that an artist’s career calls on the limits of their financial resources. Given the nature of such a daunting task it is no wonder that artists suffer profound doubts in one form or another. Imagine young students impatient to express their visions and passions on canvas and imagine their vulnerability in hoping they will have what it takes to realize their dreams. Without the certainty of accomplished works behind them, they are, indeed, vulnerable to peer pressure, authoritative experts, and the influence of the icons of their day. If their profoundly personal visions and attempts are not acknowledged and supported, then it merely takes an air of disapproval to blow away the sparks that would blaze their future. Several years ago I taught foundation classes at Otis College of Art and Design, one of the most reputable art colleges in the United States. While there, I offered seven students a private apprenticeship program outside of their schoolwork. These students had everything one could ask for: they had fire, talent, intelligence, and drive; they had that “light-bulb” look in their eyes. They studied with other foundation teachers who taught them rock-solid basics, but in the following year they entered into the fine art program, which was dominated by postmodern teachers. During a critique, one teacher and his students called my 18-year old apprentice a “fascist”, an “imperialist pig”, and “naïve” because he had exhibited a realistic oil self-portrait with studies that documented his creative process, which was dramatically lit. He was not criticized for lack of sincerity, passion, or talent. By contrast, another student received the highest mark and praise for a goldfish cast in resin which had its eyes plucked out and sewn to its tail. A day after the critique my student came to me crying and passionately asked “why?” What horrible things did my student do to deserve such nasty condemnation from the teacher and his cohorts? Could it possibly be that they were chastising him because he displayed skill and passion in painting? Another apprentice of mine took classes with an abstract expressionist teacher (in the style of Pollock) who deflected answering to students’ direct questions. In the third week of class this apprentice came to me with tears bursting from her eyes and blurted out, “what does this teacher want from me?”  I guessed that the teacher was looking for expression divorced from thought so I recommended that my apprentice use a stream of consciousness technique for this class. I told her to unscrew her head and leave it on the shelf before entering this class. She followed my advice to the letter. She did not “think”, did not ask questions, and did nothing to aim for a realization. Later in that class, the teacher waltzed around the room with my apprentice’s “creation” and claimed that it was a museum piece and that she was a genius. Overnight she became the teacher’s star pupil. My apprentice said in a mood of distaste “that work took only 5% of my capacity”. Was this teacher so out of touch with these students that she confined their potential by ignorance? Or did she do it on purpose? During our apprenticeship program every one of the seven broke down in frustration due to their postmodern education. “What do they want?” Was the unanswerable query. After witnessing two years of these episodes, it became apparent to me that it wasn’t knowledge, dedication, skill, or love of art that was wanted by these teachers. It was both obvious and inconceivable that the teachers acted to thwart these students’ minds and abilities. Did the teachers really want to turn students into confused wrecks? What sort of people embrace such a stance? Rarely have I seen genius and rarely have I seen the completely hopeless. One student was sent to my class with the aim that she would finally pass, having failed the course given by other teachers twice before. She had no interest, had no touch, and had no understanding for drawing; she had no “light bulb” in her eyes. Shockingly, just before our holidays she presented me with an invitation to her exhibition at a modern art gallery. I will never forget the look on her face after she watched me read her invitation; she was gloating. I thought of the struggles of my apprentices pouring their passion, their egos, and their overtime into developing their potential for art; I thought of the psychological abuse they were taking for it, and I thought it unjust. Was it the way of the art world that this pathetic student should displace them? I don’t mean to imply that all postmodernists are untalented, but talent in the sense of mastery of drawing and painting is not a consideration for a postmodern art education. Before their second year, my apprentices were advised by the Dean of Otis College, by the Director of Foundation, and by the Director of Fine Art that if they wanted to continue drawing the figure they would have to go into Graphic Design and forgo Fine Art. If the postmodern community does not want skill, could it be that they want students who embody a “getting away with it” mentality? A few years ago I went to an artist’s talk given by a postmodern teacher/artist at a prestigious university gallery. Her works were camouflaged within the architectural setting. One of them was a 3″ x 1″ wide plaster band that wound around on the floor of the room. It was there to be “sensed” and to subtlely affect movement within the room, changing the traffic flow of the space intended by the architect. In her talk she proudly stated that she couldn’t draw, couldn’t paint, and didn’t know anything about architectural design. Yet all her works were dependent on architectural settings designed by others. She condescendingly referred to one of the buildings as a “fascist”. When asked if she had ever created directly from nature she said she had never “thought of that.” Without any skill in art she had several museum exhibitions in which she presented her deliberate acts of subtle subversion. Could it be possible that subversion was the standard by which this postmodern exhibition was chosen? With every postmodern exhibition, with every class, with every critic’s praise, clues emerge as to the motives of the postmodernists and the general direction of the postmodern movement. I believe there is a key concept guiding postmodernists but they, in their obscure way, don’t want us or perhaps themselves to understand what it is. Let us dig deeper and see if we can find what that key is. Museum directors are the guardians of art. They strive to protect art by heightening cultural awareness: they give artists venues in which to exhibit; they cultivate public interest in their exhibitions; they arrange recognition of artists through critics and media; they raise funds to pay for their initiatives; and they produce educational programs for adults and children. They have media, millions of dollars, and educational institutions at their disposal to influence culture. Directors are the middlemen between important new artists and the public; their influence is profound in shaping “high” culture. The mission statements of many contemporary art museums include aims to express the “aesthetics of our time,” to seek out artists that are creating “new inroads,” and to exhibit the “best” artists alive today. “Best” here does not have the meaning that it has in sports, where the winner is the better athlete. Artistic value is interpreted, meaning that it is up to the curators to evaluate who are the best artists based on contemporary aesthetics, which is postmodernism, and to support them accordingly. The Encyclopedia Encarta describes the aims of Dadaists’ (the first postmodern artists) works as “… designed to shock or bewilder, in order to provoke a reconsideration of accepted aesthetic values”. But postmodern art goes deeper than merely raising challenges to specific values; it is meant to disrupt your psychological and epistemological processes or, in other words, to shatter your sanity and throttle your mind. To accomplish this, postmodern artists mangle either or both the content and means:1) They can choose a subject matter that will stretch your capacity for the unimaginable, usually by projecting a thoroughly disgusting state. Cultural Gothic by P. McCarthy is a good example of this in sculpture. It is a mechanized sculpture group in which a father encourages his adolescent son to fuck a goat. A Postmodern version of a close family? Branded by J. Saville is an example in painting. It is a self-portrait in which the obese woman thrusts out a fistful of her flesh towards us in an angry and defensive gesture. Incised scalpel-like wounds that spell out words “delicate” and “decorative” cover her rotten-colored flesh. Both these works intentionally take us into psychotic states. Saville, Self-portrait Parenthetically, it could be implied that I take issue with the artists’ right to express themselves, which is not the case. My point here is that these works are esteemed by the postmodern establishment for their shocking content and not for their quality as painting or sculpture. Strictly speaking, Saville and McCarthy aren’t postmodern purists; they compromise their postmodern, grotesque subject matters with figurative painting and sculpture. For purists, matching the means to the ends is a hallmark of the highest reaches of art, postmodern or not. “…art cannot be art and anti-art at the same time.” 2) The other method of shock aesthetics is to redefine art as anything but painting or sculpture. The classic example is The Fountain by Duchamp, a urinal presented as an artwork. The simple device of substituting anything but art, such as a toilet, as an artwork creates an epistemological disturbance in our minds. Think of substituting “table” for “egg”, “ice-cream” for “go”, “car” for “food”, etc. It is something like a computer virus that plays havoc with your system and ultimately renders your computer’s programs useless. In this way postmodernists have substituted Rauschenberg’s Erased De Kooning for drawing, Christo’s Umbrellas for sculpture, and Creed’s Empty Room for substance. Shock aesthetics are also commonly known in art history as part of the anti-art movement. Oddly, modern art historians gloss over the fact that, logically, art cannot be art and anti-art at the same time. In Part I of this series I stated that the theme of Christo’s Umbrellas magnified the contrast between the huge cost, effort, and scale of the project and its end of non-existence. The thematic idea is that this nihilistic work is not about “nothing” but it is about the non-existence, the absence, of something that had existed before. Stay with me on this idea; it is important because nihilism is one of the key aesthetic concepts of postmodernism. Now let us tweak the context and think of the entire postmodern art movement as one gigantic Christo project, in which “absence” is the theme. The postmodern movement has taken on the universality of representational art, with its history of 30,000 years, and succeeded in, in the eyes of the contemporary art world establishment, of virtually wiping it off the face of the planet. It has ripped the lid off Pandora’s box and replaced “progress, knowledge, and exaltation” with bile. Notice what this does to the status of the art director as a guardian of art, it creates a grotesque paradox; the directors of contemporary art museums are the promoters and protectors of anti-art. One important way in which they protect postmodernism is by ignoring any alternative; they are silent when it comes to value-orientated, representational art. Far from being harmless, silence from the art establishment delivers a deathblow to viable representational artists. I discussed this issue of postmodern silence with Dr. Chris Sciabarra and he replied: “[A] dominant ideology “brackets out” of the equation real alternatives: it just doesn’t allow fundamentally revolutionary alternatives to even be considered. I think this is not simply a conscious conspiracy, but a method of silence, of omission. It becomes part of the overall worldview, this tacit exclusion.” Silence is a very clever weapon for postmodernists to use; it implies that representational art is dead and that even if something is out there it doesn’t merit notice. Tom Wolfe tells the sickening story of young Fredrick Hart scanning art magazines, hoping for a review of Ex Nihilo, the facade of the Washington National Cathedral, an eleven-year sculpture project. “Months went by…nothing.” The exceptional representational artist faces another kind of wall of incomprehensibility as a consequence of this “silence.” In my long career as an artist I have met many “regular” people, who don’t know art in depth. Though some of them have mentioned the “silliness” of contemporary museum exhibitions. Yet, they have reverence for the title of “museum” and they do not understand why representational artists should have problems in getting critical recognition. They feel this is something that they cannot judge and it should be left to the experts to decide. The undertone of their unstated words is, “if the experts do not acknowledge you then there must be a good reason for it”. It is also unfortunate that if artists try to retaliate against the silence of the postmodern establishment, then it sounds like “sour grapes.” In an Agatha Christie story there is a small aside about the theft of a brooch. In the novel everyone suspected the maid, as she was the only one in the house at the time of the theft. No one accused her of the theft because she was an elderly woman and had always been very conscientious. The assumption of the locals and her employers was that she desperately needed money. The maid was terribly upset because she could see suspicion in their eyes and she could do nothing about it. The maid died before the mystery was solved. The brooch had been attached to a blouse that had been sent to the cleaners; the laundress had stolen it. The horror of this case was that the maid, in the absence of the solution to the mystery, died without ever being granted recognition for her goodness and honesty. Just as the solution to this mystery is crucial to clear up where the crime lay and redeem the innocent, understanding the mysterious motives of the postmodern movement is crucial to bringing about recognition of the goodness and honesty of benevolent, representational artists. Earlier I asked questions and raised the issue about the key concept guiding the postmodern movement. Now it should be clear. Postmodernism is literally an anti-art movement. Its objective, ostensibly, is the elevation of postmodern artists but its motive is the eradication of art. The postmodern aesthetic is a virus composed of the unstable components of nihilism for its means and disgust for its ends. It will take innovative contemporary representational art and reason-based aesthetic criticism to remedy this plague. Stay tuned for Pandora’s Box Part 3, the last of the series, in which I contrast two contemporary views of the sublime; the postmodern and the integrated. Michael Newberry 2002, revised in New York, 2006

Giving thanks on Thanksgiving is a somewhat artificial tradition, wherein we feel compelled by our culture to be grateful. The presumption is that without Thanksgiving, we wouldn’t remember to be grateful. This is hardly a good way to lead your life, being thankful only once a year. It’s an archaic, patriarchal philosophy. But the truth is that in times of great suffering, we hardly remember to be thankful for what we have. Thanksigiving may be a poor excuse to remember what the world has given you, but that’s what a blog is for!

I am thankful for…

The beauty, joy, and infectious relaxation that embodies North County San Diego, California

I live here

The University of Southern California, the generosity of its financial aid department, and the fact that its Admission Office believed in me

this be where i work

California State University, Fullerton, without which I would not be where I am today

The English Language and its vast, ever expanding literary canon. Most specifically, I would like to thank William Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, William Wordsworth, The Brontes, William Blake, Percy Blysse Shelly, Lord Byron, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Charlotte Perkins Gillman, Jack London, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and TS Eliot. I’m forgetting so many. I love you guys.

The fact that I am living in a golden age of independent cinema, where quality movies can be made on an immensely low budget without any stars, and still have a chance at stardom. Because of this, mainstream movies have been forced to grow artisitically just to compete, and film has improved because of it. This year, thanks to I Love You Man, Zombieland, Inglorious Basterds, An Education, and Where the Wild Things, and here’s to the good movies within the next month!

On that note, I must honor Flower Hill Ultra Star, La Jolla Landmark, and the Hollywood Arclight

The fact that I am living in a undisputed golden age of TELEVISION. Thank you Mad Men, Lost, my new obsession Sons of Anarchy, South Park, Weeds, 30 Rock, and all the shows I listed on my previous blog. Thanks to networks like HBO for continuing to push for quality programming.

Bonnaroo and Coachella, their very existance giving me hope for the universe.

dirty hippie-tastic

The new bands that have graced my ears this year… Airbourne Toxic Event, Arcade Fire, The Flaming Lips, The Smiths, Phoenix, Metric, Bruce Springsteen, Wilco, The National. Some of these are not new bands, I’ve just never really listened to them until this year.

The Beatles forever

Sublime’s cover of Bob Marley’s “No Woman No Cry”

Sublime forever

Just… thank god for the amazing combination of a guitar, a bass guitar, a drum kit and the human voice. Thank god for rock and roll.

Good sushi, Chipotle, Roberto’s, In-N-Out, Kenny’s Korean bbq, Yogurt Land, and my mom’s beef stew. The combination of chocolate and peanut butter also deserves notation.

My health, my good skin, my unique eyes that never give away my high-ness, my good eating habits, my awesome hair (it is too)

Weed. My anti-drug. Enough said. THANK GOD FOR WEED!

I love it...

My summer job and my current job at Bovard.

LONDON NEXT SEMESTER BITCH

oh hell no

THE PEARL – my freedom

Writing, my therapy

My extended family – my dad’s side for dealing with Grandfather’s passing, on my mom’s side for always being the most consistant, reliable, loving people in my life.

My immediate family, my dad for the changes I know he’s making, my step-mom who is very sweet and will make a wonderful mother

Jessica and Melissa

My baby brudder, Ryan. Wherever we go, whatever we do, we’re gonna go through it together.

My mom, her health, her happiness, her success, and her love and trust for me.

And lastly, the greatest friends anyone can have. No individual explanations nessecary, I don’t think I can properly put into words who you all make me feel. My journey through life has been marked by extraordinary friendships, strong bonds that have shattered before my eyes. I have had a habit of surrounding myself with dishonest people, with unreliable people, with people who I desperately wanted to believe in but have no reason to. For the first time in my life, I feel so incredibly loved, genuinely and wholely. I want to raise you all up, for each and every one of you to live out your dreams, for the entire planet to love you as much as I do. You are all extraordinary, beautiful people who deserve nothing but happiness. You have given me nothing but happiness, and your presence in my life means more then you can possibly understand. I cannot write anything special for each of you to put on my blog, and this is in no particular order, but I will tell you how much I love you for hours, if that’s what you need. I love you, I thank you:

Wifey, Cheniko, Kell-eh, KBalch, Julie, Christo, Steph, Jade, the USC GLBTA, Jake, Brendan, the Bovard kids, my dearly beloved roommate Erika, Lauren Cohen, and Sam

And here’s to change, the past that will never go away, and the love that still lives in me. Memories, you are my biggest thank you.

The artist Jeanne-Claude died recently, on November 18 of this year. The work that she and her husband Christo did, and the sheer magnitude of the projects they took on, was striking and beautiful both in its ambition and in its realization. The wrapping works are particularly interesting to me – in the way that the covering up of landforms and constructions actually had the effect of highlighting the their vastness and significance. This kind of art – one that is comprised both of an ambition to create something new and of a pleasingly selfless ability to complement a pre-existing structure – is impressive to me in its sense of balance and understanding both of time and of space. Among the places where the artists worked are Paris, New York, and Marin County, California, all of which are dear to me for various reasons.

// Running Fence in Sonoma & Marin Counties, California 1972-76

// Wrapped Coast, Little Bay, Australia 1968-69

See the link above for more.

For your ears, while your eyes are busy:  Kurt Vile – Nicotine Blues

Le duo d’artistes Christo&Jeanne-Claude travaille ensemble depuis Novembre 1958, quand ils se sont rencontrés à Paris (il y a 51 ans). A partir de ce moment, ils ne se sont plus quittés et ont réalisé beaucoup de travaux dans le monde entier. Leurs installations temporelles sont très caractéristiques par leur grande taille et leur impact visuel.

Normalement, ils travaillent dans la planification de leurs projets avec des spécialistes de la construction et des ingénieurs. Avant de commencer la construction, ils font beaucoup d’esquisses et ils commercialisent et vendent les idées à des investisseurs privés et publics, et avec cet argent ils font de grandes installations. 

En 1979, ils ont commencé à travailler avec ‘The Gates’, une installation à Central Park New York. Ils ont trouvé l’investisseur et ont fixé les autorisations et les détails techniques pour la construction (toiles, structures etc.). En 2003, le maire de New-York a fait l’annonce officielle de la construction de l’installation. Deux ans après, en février 2005, elle a été inaugurée et après, toutes les toiles ont été recyclées.

La même chose s’est passée avant, avec le bâtiment du gouvernement en Allemagne (1971-1995). Ils ont fait ‘Wrapped  Reichstag’ avec l’aide de 90 professionnels de l’escalade et 120 installateurs. Cette installation a eu une grande signification politique et a été financée aussi par les artistes ; ils n’acceptent pas de donations économiques par leur travail.

            Christo and Jeanne-Claude ont travaillé ensemble, jusqu’à ce dernier mercredi 18  novembre, quand Jeanne-Claude est morte suite à des problèmes cérébraux.

Cet article est un petit hommage pour son travail, et pour la regrettable perte de Christo, son époux, collègue et artiste qui continuera à travailler en mémoire de Jeanne-Claude.

(Plus d’information sur http://www.christojeanneclaude.net/)

 Abril Sanchez Gzz., étudiante mexicaine, 4ème année art

Jeanne-Claude, half of the Christo partnership, died last week, on 18th November 2009.

Here’s a cartoon about Christo. It’s a reworking of a cartoon that I drew about twenty years ago.  The cartoon had to be redrawn because in the original version there was only one person in the cartoon: Christo Vladimirov Javacheff, the male half of the collaborative team. It was only more recently that the importance of Jeanne-Claude (born Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon) to the partnership became known.

In this new version of the cartoon the name Christo refers to the two figures.

Click here to listen to the show.

On tonight’s show:

- Gomorrah (2008) The Criterion Collection Blu-Ray

-  The Twilight Zone, Season 5, “Stopover In A Quiet Town” (1964)

- An Appreciation: Trick Shot Magic International aka “Artistic Pool” and specifically Eric “The Preacher Choker” Yow and The Hopkins Scale.

- Interesting Death of the Week with B.K.: Jeanne-Claude – Artist.

- Tonight’s Score: Jerry Goldsmith’s score for The Twilight Zone (Disc 2)

The Gates. A larger-than life art installation in Central Park, New York City. February 2005

Our first trip to New York City with a baby was a cold and leafless day in February 2005 to see the Gates, a 23-mile-long art installation created by the husband and wife team Christo and Jeanne-Claude, known for similarly massive art adventures around the world.

This week, Jeanne-Claude passed away at the age of 74, according to nytimes.com. To pay tribute, I dug up some photos from our walking tour, which was cut short when we had to return to the car because there’s no place to change a baby’s diaper in Central Park when it’s 30 degrees outside.

More saffron-color Gates near the south entrance of Central Park

Walking 1/100th of the 23-mile-long installation.

The Gates at a Glance
Here are some awesome facts about the exhibit via New York City’s web site.

- 7,500 gates lined up across 23 miles of footpaths weaving through Central Park.
- Each Gate measured between 5 ft. wide to 18 ft. wide  and 16 ft. tall.
- Saffron-colored fabric panels were suspended from the top of each gate and hung down to 7 ft. above the ground.
- The project was funded entirely by the artists and provide employment for hundreds of New York City residents, hired to assemble, install, maintain and remove the installation.
- After The Gates was disassembled, most of the materials were recycled.

Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebone, wife and artistic partner of Christo, died suddenly Wednesday, November 19, 2009, in Manhattan, where she had lived with Christo since 1964.  A statement on the couple’s website said that she died of a ruptured brain aneurysm.  She was 74.  I had met her several times throughout the years and found her both enchanting and frank–hallmarks of a strong woman.  The last time we met was in mid-September at “The Running Fence at 33” gathering,  when she and Christo spent the afternoon in Valley Ford reminiscing with old friends about “The Running Fence,” which graced our California coastline 33 years earlier.  German filmmaker Wolfram Hissen was there shooting a documentary film about the fence and George Gurney, deputy chief curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum was also there preparing for “Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Remembering the Running Fence, Sonoma and Marin Counties, California, 1972-76, A Documentation Exhibition,” which opens April 2, 2010, in Washington and will travel nationally.  

Looking back at that lovely event, I am thankful that I had the chance to greet her again and that she was able to visit with friends who were part of her formative years.  She said several times that afternoon that she felt as if she had “come home.”   When I wrote about the gathering, my headline pointed to what was coming “..we’re all older but the fence lives on..”  Many of the farmers who had given the young couple permission to put the fence up on their property had passed away and most of the people at the gathering were well over 50.  Talking about the fence took us all back to our youthful days.   Jeanne-Claude was happy and spoke excitedly about their new project “Over the River, Project for the Arkansas River, State of Colorado.”    which had suffered the standard bureaucratic and funding snafus that accompany these immense temporal  projects.  Her red-orange hair—reminiscent of the cotton candy hair of a clown– seemed brighter than it had ever been before.  She signed autographs and poured over pictures and maps.  She spoke graciously with strangers and lovingly with dear friends.  And, like a little girl, she snuck a cigarette with an old friend and told us not to photograph her smoking because she didn’t want to be seen promoting something that was unhealthy.     

Jeanne-Claude and Christo in younger days (image by Fred Modarrah)

I have always been fascinated by artist couples who manage to pull it off—a loving marriage, a creative partnership and fame.  Their collaborative approach, which I had heard them describe a few times in the 1990’s, always left me hungering for more information.  It was described as follows–Christo and Jeanne-Claude would come up with an idea and he would prepare drawings, scale models and descriptive items that could be sold to realize the full-scale project.  She was a driving force in other ways, particularly with financial affairs, permitting and when the project was going up on site– The only problem with this explanation was that it seemed to contradict an earlier history of sole attribution to Christo that had been in practice from the 1960’s through the 1980’s.

Around the time the Wrapped Reichstag project (1971-95) was nearing its completion– about 1994—Christo and Jeanne-Claude began to insist on retroactive joint attribution of all artworks from the 1960’s onwards that had previously been attributed to Christo.   They essentially re-branded themselves.  Before, they asserted they had been ”Christo” and now they were instead “Christo and Jeanne-Claude.”     The problem I see in that is that it does not answer when or how she began to think of herself an as artist and it clashes with earlier comments Christo made about his artistic process.  In my mind, a large part of making art is declarative–asserting that what you are doing is art when you are doing it.  It is less powerful when it comes 30 years after the fact.  

Christo and Jeanne-Claude (image by Wolfgang Volz)

So in the 1990’s, it was asserted frequently that she and he shared equally in the creative process.  At other times during this period, Christo spoke of himself as the artist, the one who had absolute control over all the decisions.  There are quotes to back-up competing interpretations.   Their website has a section called “Common Errors” which explains it this way: “In 1994 they decided to officially change the artist name Christo into: the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude. They have been working together since their first outdoor temporary work: “Dockside Packages, Cologne Harbor, 1961.” Because Christo was already an artist when they met in 1958 in Paris, and Jeanne-Claude was not an artist then, they have decided that their name will be ” Christo and Jeanne-Claude”, NOT Jeanne-Claude and Christo.” 

Nice dodge.  I would have loved to have spoken with them about the topic of authorship, though I suspect the conversation would not have been an easy one.  I suspect the truth is that they struggled with this and reached some negotiated decision and then set it aside and got back to work, which they seemed to thrive on.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude met in Paris, France, in November, 1958—Christo Javachef, a native Bulgarian from Gabrovo, was a young impoverished refugee artist, who had recognized artistic talent and had already wrapped a few things.  She was born in Casablanca, Morocco, where her father, Major Léon Denat was in the French military.  Her mother, Précilda, divorced Denat after Jeanne-Claude’s birth and remarried three times.  During WWII, Jeanne-Claude lived with her father’s family while her mother fought in the French Resistance.  In 1946, Précilda married the influential General Jacques de Guillebon and the family led a priviledged life in Berne from 1948 to 1951, then in Tunisia from 1952 to 1957.  In 1957 they returned to Paris and lived in comfort.  Jeanne-Claude earned a baccalaureate in Latin and philosophy in 1952 from the University of Tunis. 

Jeanne-Claude met Christo in Paris in 1958 while she–a young debutant– was enagaged to be married and he was painting a portrait of her mother.  It is well-known that Christo invited her to his place to see his real artwork—sculptural pieces which were a series of wrapped found objects—and that she thought he was crazy but she was hooked.  She became pregnant by Christo but married her fiance, an older man, and then divorced him immediately and took up with Christo, delivering their child Cyril in 1960.  And the rest, as they say, is history.

The couple not only share the same birthday but the same time of birth on June 13, 1935. They emigrated to New York from Paris in 1964 and worked together for over 40  years creating temporary artistic interventions involving covering, wrapping or altering landscapes.  Iconic best describes their impact.  Many people I have spoken with have mentioned a sense of the spiritual and others see it as a kind of architectural humor.    Whatever the reaction, is it deep and memorable–no one walks away from one of their installations without being stirred.  Their projects have been immortalized in six films by filmmaker Albert Maysles, whose first film “Christo’s Valley Curtain” was nominated for an oscar.   German filmmaker Wolfram Hissen also paid homage to the couple with his 1996 film “To the German People: The Wrapped Reichstag.” 

 My favorites of their 18 realized projects  are “ Running Fence” (1972-74),  “Pont Neuf Wrapped” (Paris, 1975-85) and  “Wrapped Reichstag”  (Berlin, 1971-1995)—all of which required years of planning and lengthy campaigns to obtain the necessary permits.  In September, Jeanne-Claude, with a mixture of pride and weariness, reminisced about the tenacity these bureaucratic interfaces required, particularly “The Running Fence” which was one of their earliest big projects.  I think it is fair to say that everyone in attendance at the event was proud that Christo and Jeanne-Claude had cut their teeth for these projects here on our home turf.   And, what a battle it was– they perservered and, in the end, created the most lyrical outdoor intervention ever.

 While the couple were long-term residents of New York, “The Gates” (1979-2005) was the only project they succeeded in installing in New York City, in Central Park.  They signed a 43 page contract with the city of New York before they could install the 7,503 orange fabric panels of varying heights that graced Central Park for 16 days.

The couple’s website is the best place to read about their work.   Whatever they have declared about the change from “Christo” to “Christo and Jeanne-Claude”, the institutions that house the artworks done by Christo’s hand have not followed suit with retroactive joint attribution.  That may or may not be important to Christo, who survives his wife and, according to their website, plans to continue on creating in both their names.    

SFMOMA has a number of photos and drawings by Christo and Jeanne-Claude in their collection with attribution solely to Christo Javacheff.  Images of ”The Running Fence” dominate their Christo holdings and were accessioned in 1977, a year after the project was realized.  None of these are currently on display.  The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) has 22 of Christo’s drawings, attributed solely to Christo (Christo Javacheff).  Ditto for the Smithsonian American Art Museum which in 2008 acquired the complete documentation of “The Running Fence.”  The title of the exhibition does credit Jeanne-Claude—“Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Remembering the Running Fence, Sonoma and Marin Counties, California, 1972-76, A Documentation Exhibition.” 

Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s artworks are temporary and immortal, living on in our dreams long after they have been taken down.   As a new cycle now begins for Jeanne-Claude that is even richer than her time here on earth, may she smile as she wraps heaven in shimmering fabrics.

Jeanne-Claude, wife and artistic partner of Christo, died suddenly Wednesday, November 19, 2009, in Manhattan, where she lived.  A statement on the couple’s website said that she had died of a ruptured brain aneurysm.  She was 74.  I had met her several times throughout the years and found her both enchanting and frank–hallmarks of a strong woman.  The last time we met was in mid-September when she and Christo spent the afternoon in Valley Ford reminiscing with residents and dear friends about “The Running Fence,” which had graced our California coastline 33 years earlier.  German filmmaker Wolfram Hissen was there shooting a documentary film about the fence and George Gurney, deputy chief curator at the Smithsonian was also there preparing for “Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Remembering the Running Fence, Sonoma and Marin Counties, California, 1972-76, A Documentation Exhibition,” which opens April 2, 2010, in Washington and will travel nationally.   Looking back at that lovely day, I am thankful that I had the chance to greet her again and that she was able to visit friends who were part of her formative years.  She said several times that afternoon that she felt as if she had “come home.”   She was excited and talked about their project “Over the River, Project for the Arkansas River, State of Colorado.”   Her red-orange hair—reminiscent of the cotton candy hair of a clown– seemed brighter than it had ever been before.  She signed autographs, poured over pictures and maps and spoke graciously.  Like a little girl she snuck a cigarette with an old friend and told us not to photograph her smoking because she didn’t want to be seen promoting something that was unhealthy.     

I have always been fascinated by artist couples who manage to pull it off—a loving marriage, a creative partnership and fame.  Their collaborative approach, which I had heard them describe a few times in the 1990’s, always left me hungering for more—Christo and Jeanne-Claude would come up with an idea and he would prepare drawings, scale models and descriptive items that could be sold to realize the full-scale project.  She was a driving force in other ways, particularly with financial affairs and when the project was going up on site.   The only problem with this explanation was that it seemed to contradict an earlier history of sole attribution to Christo that had been in practice from the 1960 through the 1980’s but was re-written.  They essentially re-branded themselves.  The problem I see in that is that it does not answer when or how she began to think of herself an as artist.  In my mind, a large part of making art is declarative–asserting that what you are doing is art.  It is less powerful when it comes 30 years after the fact.  

Beginning in the 1990’s, Christo and Jeanne-Claude began to insist on retroactive joint attribution of all artworks from the 1960’s onwards that had previously been attributed to Christo.   It was asserted frequently that she and he shared equally in the creative process.  At other times during this period, Christo spoke of himself as the artist, the one who had absolute control over all the decisions.  There are quotes and explanations to back-up several competing interpretations.   Their website has a section called “Common Errors” which explains it this way: “In 1994 they decided to officially change the artist name Christo into: the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude. They have been working together since their first outdoor temporary work: “Dockside Packages, Cologne Harbor, 1961.” Because Christo was already an artist when they met in 1958 in Paris, and Jeanne-Claude was not an artist then, they have decided that their name will be ” Christo and Jeanne-Claude”, NOT Jeanne-Claude and Christo.” 

Nice dodge.  I would have loved to have spoken with them about the topic of authorship, though I suspect the conversation would not have been an easy one.  I suspect the truth is that they struggled with this and reached some negotiated decision. (570)

Christo and Jeanne-Claude met in Paris, France, in November, 1958—Christo Javachef, a native Bulgarian, was a young impoverished refugee, a native Bulgarian, who had studied art and had already wrapped a few things. She was born in Casablanca, Morocco, where her father, Major Léon Denat was in the French military.  Her mother, Précilda, divorced Denat after Jeanne-Claude’s birth and remarried three times.  During WWII, Jeanne-Claude lived with her father’s family while her mother fought in the French Resistance.  In 1946, Précilda married the influential General Jacques de Guillebon and the family led a priviledged life in Berne from 1948 to 1951 then in Tunisia from 1952 to 1957, when they returned to Paris. Jeanne-Claude earned a baccalaureate in Latin and philosophy in 1952 from the University of Tunis. 

Jeanne-Claude met Christo in Paris in 1958 while she was enagaged to be married and he was painting a portrait of her mother.  He initially was interested in Jeanne-Claude’s half-sister, Joyce.  Jeanne-Claude became preganant by Christo but married another man and divorced him immediately and took up with Christo, delivering their child Cyril in 1960.  The couple not only share the same birthday but the same time of birth on June 13, 1935.  They have worked together for 51 years creating temporary and iconic works of art that have brought forth a new vision of our earth as sacred.  May a new cycle now begin for her that is even more powerful and glorious.  May she shine.

…dead at 74.

Not Van Damme,

-Shady

Christo & Jeanne-Claude

In the whirlwind of information crammed into my brain as a college student, there are many things that I learned throughout my classes that I have since forgotten. I remember reading a book really enjoyed in my Literature courses, but I can’t recall the author, or even the exact plotline, or listened to a particularly compelling lecture in History, which conclusion or ideas presented have since escaped me. But regardless of how foggy my memories of some of my favorite moments as a student become, I will never forget the first time my Art professor presented the vivid oranges and blues of art pieces created by husband-and-wife team Christo and Jeanne-Claude.

Their story of life-long love and companionship is as compelling as the bright hues that appeared in their art, and perhaps even worth noting – Jeanne-Claude’s signature blazing red hair. Collaborating on Christo’s artwork for over 50 years, their relationship rested on deep respect and true teamwork, rather than a muse-artist or assistant-manager relationship, translating into profound and globally famous works for decades. While Christo’s art is known for its temporary outdoor installations, works such as The Gates, which created an orange trail of rich orange fabric draping tall beams throughout a Central Park have created long-lasting impressions. Their work was meant to give viewers a new appreciation for their environment, whether it was a bridge or a landscape or a park.

The Gates in Central Park

The world will miss Jeanne-Claude, who died this week at age 74. Though she famously espoused, “Artists don’t retire. They die. That’s all. When they stop being able to create art, they die,” she and Christo had in fact been working on their next installation, which he will continue on without her. perhaps, if for no other reason than to live by her very quote. Her many achievements as an artist may only be shadowed by her successes in her personal journeys, a life many only dream of; she died having found the ability to make a living doing what she loved while continually inspiring people world-wide, all while finding a deeply profound love in a partner of kindred spirit.

Even as our memories fade to make room for new information, if nothing else – not even her fiery red hair and creative statements that have captivated art-lovers for a half a century – remember her passion for life, and ability to continually create and inspire the world, and use it as an example in your own life.

For an obituary on Jeanne-Claude from the Washington Post, please click here.

Jeanne-Claude and Christo in 2007 (photo by Bryan Obrien)

Last Wednesday, the artist Jeanne-Claude, wife and creative partner of the artist Christo, passed away.  New Yorkers remember Jeanne-Claude and Christo’s ambitious 2005 piece, The Gates, a sweeping installation with 23 miles of saffron fabric fluttering throughout Central Park.

The Gates in Central Park, New York

The couple showcased their dramatic work all over the world, famously wrapping the Reichstag in Berlin and the Pont Neuf in Paris in fabric.

The Reichstag, Berlin

The Pont Neuf, Paris

But Jeanne-Claude and Christo aren’t just known for the grand scale of their work; they’re also known for their determination to get past all the red tape to bring their colossal visions to life.  Back in 2005, just before The Gates opened in New York, Studio 360’s Sarah Lilley talked with the couple about how they took “beauty into battle.”

- Erin Calabria

Se ne va Jeanne-Claude, moglie di Christo.

Pubblico perchè credo che l’arte dell’ “impacchettamento” , arrivata nei luoghi più impensabili, è da considerare un inno alla contaminazione, al ribaltamento e alla provocazione.

Da qui.

In Memory of Jeanne-Claude, originally uploaded by CVerwaal.

Artist Jeanne-Claude, co-creator of the Central Park installation ‘The Gates,’ has died at the age of 74.
“The Gates,” (2005) by conceptual artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude consisted of an installation of 7,500 saffron-colored fabric panels hanging from 16-ft.-tall portals along 23 miles of walkway in Central Park, New York City.
I remember not liking the idea at all at first, but then falling in love with The Gates when they were up. The snow made them even more spectacular. I spend days wandering underneath them…it was magic.!!

The Gates -- Brilliant!

Woke up this morning to read that Jeanne-Claude, the partner of Christo has died of complications of a brain aneurysm after taking a fall. In the words of Manuela Hoelterhoff in Bloomberg this morning: “Like the projects she created over the decades with her husband, Christo, Jeanne-Claude is no longer here, but the memory of her will linger.” They seemed to me to be a product of a former age — and now with this passing they are.

I came to think of the international public art creating duo as Jeanne-Claude Christo as if they were one person. They created art for public spaces such as the Gates, a 23 mile long installation of saffron-colored banners or gates in New York’s Central Park, putting Rauschenberg’s 1/4 Mile or 2 Furlong Piece to shame — at least in length.

Naturally they were far from one person because each is so distinct, so individual. She with flaming carrot colored hair, lipstick to match and a constant cigarette, he professorial, spectacles in place looking a bit like a mad pharmacist, must have had many heated, vibrant discussions regarding their projects as they called their creations.

Citizens of the world the couple lived in — of course — New York. But it took many years for then to find a Mayor willing to allow them to install the Gates in Central Park. Many of their projects were like that — taking many years and infinite patience before becoming realities. I often wondered how they supported themselves assuming at one point that they had inherited wealth. In reality they sold the artwork that were byproducts of the designs of their installations. This summer Aurora and I visited Easton Pennsylvania and checked into a fine establishment — the Grand Eastonian Suites Hotel. In the lobby we saw several beautiful design drawings of the Gates. The manager explained that the owners of the hotel were former MNew Yorkers who admired the Gates and therefore had purchased the drawings. They were large, colorful fantasies. But of course these were fantasies made real.

That is the accomplishment of Jeanne-Claude Christo — they made their fantasies real. In that regard and because of the public nature of what they do I am reminded of Philippe Petit, the Man on Wire who walked between New York’s Twin Towers on a tight rope in 1974. And of course she too was French making Christo an honorary Frenchman I suppose (he was born in Bulgaria but had emigrated to France by 1958, the year that the two met)

The Gates was the only Jeanne-Claude Christo installation that I ever saw.  Many of the works of Christo in the early days were wrapped objects, later he wrapped huge buildings and statues creating a new work on top of what was, perhaps, something quite ordinary. In 1993 the couple recognized Jeanne-Claude’s contribution to Christo’s efforts giving her equal billing from that time on.  One of the couples most impressive and difficult projects was wrapping the Pont Neuf  in 444,000 square feet of champagne-colored drapes.

http://www.christojeanneclaude.net/pn.shtml

You might ask — to what purpose is all this wrapping and draping. But to ask is to miss the point. As Gary Winograd famously said: “Photography is not about the thing photographed. It is about how that thing looks photographed. - Garry Winogrand Or — I take photographs to see how the thing would look in a photograph. Jeanne-Claude and Christo wrapped and draped things to show the world how they would look that way. For me the Gates provided and wonderful reason to stroll through Central Park on a chilly February day meeting people from around the world who were all with me in our amazed , puzzled and ultimately delighted frame of mind. We were drawn out of ourselves by the work of the artists who seemed to extend the New York of Rauschenberg, Dali and Stieglitz into the present time. Dada is not dead as long as people are interested in turning our world, for a moment, on its head. I hope Christo is able to continue the work he did for so many years with Jeanne-Claude at his side. I look forward to his next project.

Goodbye to Jeanne-Claude, artist, muse and partner of the artist Christo.  I was lucky enough to work at The Gates Project when they created their fabulous site-specific work of art in 2005. The artists installed 7,503 vinyl “gates” along 23 miles of pathways in Central Park. From each gate hung a panel of deep saffron-colored nylon fabric. The exhibit ran from February 12, 2005 through February 27, 2005.  Even though the exhibit officially ran for two weeks the installation and deinstallation of the project stretched out this work for almost two months.  I believe this community work of art, was the beginning of the recovery of our wounded City from the devastation of 9/11.

As a Gate Watcher, I held a long pole with a tennis ball on the end of it so that I could unfurl the saffron curtains if the wind wrapped them around their stanchions.  I had the good fortune of speaking to thousands upon thousands of visitors from all around the world about the project, about New York City, about life, art and politics for two weeks. It was an experience I will never forget.  Most of you on this list came to visit me at my post to share the experience.

The knitted orange Gates scarf you see in my photo was created by a friend – Jennifer – who was inspired by the work of Jean-Claude and Christo.

Every morning that we worked we would meet Jeanne-Claude and Christo at the Boat House for breakfast where they would talk to us, both individually and as a group. They also were generous enough to take the time to sign our souvenir posters, books or whatever – every Friday afternoon – with their signature orange crayons.  I have my signed posters proudly hanging in my living room.  Rest in peace, dear Jeanne -Claude.

At the age of 74, Christo’s wife and collaborator on so many projects (the wrapping of the Pont-Neuf in Paris and the Yellow saffron gateways all over Central Park in NYC are two of them) has died of a brain aneurism.

Although she had been collaborating with Christo since 1961, it wasn’t until 1994 that her name joined his on the collected body of work, where it was applied retroactively.

The NY Times commented on the work they were in the middle of at the time of her death on Wednesday:

Before Jeanne-Claude’s death, she and Christo were at work on two projects: “Over the River,” a series of fabric panels to be suspended over the Arkansas River in Colorado, and “The Mastaba,” a stack of 410,000 oil barrels configured as a mastaba, or truncated rectangular pyramid, envisioned for the United Arab Emirates.

Like all of their projects, these were intended to be temporary, a quality at the heart of the artistic enterprise. Whether executed in oil drum or brightly colored fabric, the art of her and her husband, Jeanne-Claude said, expressed “ the quality of love and tenderness that we human beings have for what does not last.”

I have a personal remembrance from my earlier years in NYC of Christo (and Jeanne-Claude) and their “wrapping” of the Whitney Museum on upper Madison Avenue (it was there that I was soon to do my first production with Ed Roberts of The Hunting Of The Snark.) They covered the entirety of the, then, new museum building with a dull canvas tied with heavy ropes.

I hope Christo is able to continue. I know how hard it is when creative people lose their career-long personal relationships. I feel very sad for him.

Sad news about artist Jeanne-Claude, who died last night at a New York hospital from complications of a brain aneurysm.

Jeanne-Claude was 74 and the wife, partner and collaborator of Christo. Together they made some incredible, joyous art, including wrapping the Reichstag in Germany, the Pont Neuf in Paris, the Kunsthalle in Bern, Switzerland, a Roman wall in Italy and Snoopy’s kennel (after Schulz drew the above cartoon). Jeanne-Claude and Christo always denied their art had any deeper meaning other than helping the viewer experience familiar landscapes from a different perspective. They always refused any sponsorship and financed all their temporary installations through the projects, including the sale of their preparatory drawings, collages, scale models and original lithographs.

According to a statement by their family, Christo is deeply saddened by Jeanne-Claude’s death but “committed to honor the promise they made to each other many years ago: The art of Christo and Jeanne-Claude will continue.” That includes their current works in progress: Over The River, Project for the Arkansas River, State of Colorado, and The Mastaba, Project for the United Arab Emirates. The Mastaba (from the Arabic word for bench) was conceived in 1977 and envisioned to be made of approximately 410,000 horizontally stacked oil barrels, 300 metres wide and 150 metres high.

This is why Jeanne-Claude will be missed:

Wrapped Reichstag

Wrapped Reichstag

Pont Neuf Wrapped

Wrapped Trees, Riehen, Switzerland

The Gates, Central Park, New York

The Gates, Central Park, New York

The Umbrellas, Japan

Running Fence, California

Sad news about artist Jeanne-Claude, who died last night at a New York hospital from complications of a brain aneurysm.

Jeanne-Claude was 74 and the wife, partner and collaborator of  Christo. Together they made some incredible, joyous art, including wrapping the Reichstag in Germany, the Pont Neuf in Paris, the Kunsthalle in Bern, Switzerland, a Roman wall in Italy and Snoopy’s kennel (after Schulz drew the above cartoon). Jeanne-Claude and Christo always denied their art had any deeper meaning other than helping the viewer experience familiar landscapes from a different perspective.  They always refused any sponsorship and financed all their temporary installations through the projects, including the sale of their preparatory drawings, collages, scale models and original lithographs.

According to a statement by their family, Christo is deeply saddened by Jeanne-Claude’s death but “committed to honor the promise they made to each other many years ago: The art of Christo and Jeanne-Claude will continue.” That includes their current works in progress: Over The River, Project for the Arkansas River, State of Colorado, and The Mastaba, Project for the United Arab Emirates. The Mastaba (from the Arabic word for bench) was conceived in 1977 and envisioned to be made of approximately 410,000 horizontally stacked oil barrels, 300 metres wide and 150 metres high.

This is why Jeanne-Claude will be missed:

Wrapped Reichstag

Wrapped Reichstag

Pont Neuf Wrapped

Wrapped Trees, Riehen, Switzerland

The Gates, Central Park, New York

The Gates, Central Park, New York

The Umbrellas, Japam

Running Fence, California

I’m sure most have heard the news, but I ’d like to pay brief homage to Jeanne-Claude, who, along with husband Christo, shared a prolific career in the arts. They were at the forefront of earth art movements in the 1970s, and have consistently awed us (and frustrated our bureaucratic systems) since. Their site-specific work engages with the environment on an ephemeral level, rigorously pulling us out of the gallery and into nature for their temporary, strange and undeniably beautiful constructions.

It seems as though they’ll be most remembered for The Gates in Central Park…at least thats what the bulk of news has been clipping (perhaps because it’s the only work that has been widely accessible to Americans? And it’s true, it’s the only one I’ve walked through) but I hope most will remember them for more. Five Films about Christo & Jeanne-Claude explores some of their best work.

In a family statement Christo has said he is “committed to honour the promise they made to each other many years ago: that the art of Christo and Jeanne-Claude would continue.”

And it looks like Christo will be forging on ahead with a few projects slated to be finished by summer 2013. Including Over the River, a project that would span woven fabric over miles of the Arkansas River.

Sad news, indeed.

I have never seen one of their installations “live”, nonetheless, I have been very inspired by their work, by their collaboration, by the vision of their projects, by the faith they have in their own work.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/19/jeanne-claude-artist-is-dead/?hp

Some of their work is documented here:

http://www.amazon.com/Films-About-Christo-Jeanne-Claude-Production/dp/1891024949/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258660177&sr=8-14

Well worth watching. Beats the stuff that is on TV, hands down.

Their website is : http://www.christojeanneclaude.net/

Running Fence and The Gates, are favorites of mine. All of their installations require untold amounts of work, planning, cooperation, details. But Running Fence, also required permission from ranchers and farmers to install the fence temporarily on their personal land. Watch the film about this one to see what happens when something literally bigger than you are, is put in place, even though it is temporary. But it is NOT temporary in the mind, as anyone can attest who has seen their work live, or even on film. I can still hear the wind, running through the fence….