To Jeanne-Claude – Let’s Celebrate a Life Well Lived
Jeanne-Claude is dead. She was the lesser-known partner to Christo. And though their website specifically refers to “Christo and Jeanne-Claude,” it is Christo’s name that for years stood for their works.
I celebrate her mostly because she was able to do it. To have an entire career in the arts without resorting to distracting days jobs. If that sounds like damning with faint praise, I don’t mean it that way. For me, although the art is important, just being able to make a career in the arts is enough for a place of honor. That’s right. An earnest commercial artist is every bit as admirable as the lucky fine artist. And one more thing – I make an exception for Thomas Kinkade! Even though he has made a successful career for himself, he and his works are abhorrent – ok, I’m inconsistent!
Jeanne-Claude’s death came from a ruptured brain aneurysm, and was completely unexpected. At age 74, maybe she didn’t live long enough, but with some 50 years as a working artist, she did pretty well. She met Christo in the late 1950s and by the 1970s, the two had settled into a career doing large environmental works. Please view their website.
For me, until I saw the Gates, I thought of Christo as an art con-man. Well, I was wrong (and note, I didn’t have a clue that there was a collaborator).
To those who saw the Gates, or who have seen any of the works by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, then I hope you too remember the exquisite joy that their works brought. To those who didn’t – sadly, it’s not the same on film.
*A footnote on Thomas Kinkade. He shamelessly covers himself in the same sort of patriotic and Christian imagery that we see in conservative Republican politics. Take a look, read the text on his website. Then vomit him away.
We were at the Gates and loved it. My slide show from that event is here.
one of the better slide shows that i’ve seen.
The funny part was that my kid just happened to have a winter coat that year which, as you can see, fairly matched the saffron color of the show! The artists had said they’d timed the installation in the hope that there would be snow on the ground, and they got their wish. We went in late Feb., when there were just a few days left before it would be taken down. There were kids everywhere, many of them climbing onto Dad’s shoulders so they could touch the cloth. It was a comfortable winter day with just enough wind to create the wonderful effect of movement along those saffron corridors.
at my present age, i now understand that things will not always be there if i miss seeing them first time round. i wish i knew this years ago. in that vein, i told a young colleague to see the Gates, and they more or less blew me off.
my wife and i went on maybe the last weekend. it was cold, but had a sunny balmy quality that made the day (and the bright Gates) combine to turn central park into a holiday scape. the park was full of families walking together. my wife and i walked past every gate, and then some.
it was a great experience.