FEBRUARY
20,
2005 --
The
New York Post reported, February 19, that vendors selling photographs
of "The Gates" outside Central Park were warned that
they faced legal action.
As LPR noted last week, "The Gates" is
protected by copyright. The protection, however, bars sale
of Gates photos -- not
snapping pictures as news story or for personal use.
Early
in the first week of "The Gates," grumbling about
this as art could be heard among visitors to Central Park and
in the media. LPR does wonder if this is the first "work
of art" to have a command center.
One
of the accompanying photos shows the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude
driving aournd the park in a very nifty
car.
LPR also spotted a truck apparently
carrying off the cardboard tubes that held the fabric before
the February 12 unfurling. One of these tubes, according
to a New York Times report, had been offered for sale on
the internet.
This
too, is apparently against Gates rules, which call for recycling
of "The Gates" in its entirety.
(On unfurling day, LPR saw one man wrapped in Gates casing.)
Toward
the end of the week, LPR spotted another vehicle on Central
Park's West
Drive carrying what seemed to be Gates art parts.
Throughout
the week, LPR noted that Central Park was heavily blanketed
by police presence, including mounted
police
and officers on motorcycles and scooters as well
as on foot patrol
and in vans and
patrol cars. LPR did not, however, see elements of
the NYPD directing traffic on the roadways surrounding
the
park.
LPR
did spot a traffic agent directing traffic at an
east side intersection near the park.
Still, for the first week of this art spectacle,
the vicinity around Central Park was basically a
traffic
free-fall zone.
LPR was limited to one hour intervals in viewing "The
Gates, during the week -- the time allotted at most
parking meters in the vicinity of Central Park. (Ten
minute intervals
at 25 cents per interval.)
Parking is permitted after 4 p.m. at Fifth Avenue
locations -- on the east edge of the park -- but
in February,
this allows for no more than an hour of effective
sunlight for Gates photo-taking. There is curbside
parking on
streets
near Central Park, but the regulations, rules and
restrictions could only be set down at such length
as to despair
people
from traveling to view "The Gates." (There
is the alternative of parking in nearby garages --
or visiting
by mass transit.)
Notwithstanding the restraints presented by NYC parking
rules, LPR has taken a great many photos of "The Gates" --
on a quest for a photo that, even if not to be sold,
captures the essence of this art
project. Alas, none of the LPR photos seems to match
those that are no longer on sale by vendors outside
Central Park.
Still, LPR has
noticed that some of the elements of "The Gates" offer
good backdrop for previously placed art work -- the statue of Balto,
the hero dog, for example, on the east side of the park near 67th
Street.
Also, "The
Gates" offers backdrop for horse-drawn carriages, hand-holding
couples, joggers, bicyclists, and geese.
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And -- New
York City landmarks, like The Dakota on Central Park West at
72nd Street, and Wollman Rink, near the duck
pond at the park's southeast corner, offer interesting backdrops for "The
Gates."
On a clear day,
or in the rain, some views of this art work might suggest "The
Gates" on parade.
On a sunny day, "The
Gates" might serve as shade, while casting a diamond-shaped
shadow.
At a spot behind
the Metropolitan Museum, "The Gates" offers a fiery glow
the other side of pine trees. Images of "The Gates" can
be seen as reflections on
Metropolitan Museum wall, a pond, even a Central Park South apartment building.
Before the end
of the first week, the parks department estimated that a million people
had come to Central Park to see "The Gates," and the crowds
spottted by
LPR February 19 suggested that interested is not abating.
Although the color of "The Gates" has also been derided by critics,
it should also be noted that not a few of the visitors tour the art work with
color-coordinated accessories.
And, perhaps, "The
Gates" might also inspire writers to whimsy -- as, say, 'in
a story about the Gate who wanted
to be a flag.
Whether "The
Gates" is art, fabrication, event, happening, a lot of people
are voting with their feet that it is indeed something to behold
-- and photograph
(except for an autograph opportunity under the auspices, of New York magazine).
The first week
of "The Gates," ended with the artists -- Christo and Jeanne-Claude--
certainly the most newly-recognizable celebrities in town.
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