CELEBRITIES  LIGHTHOUSE: BEST AND WORST ART GOSSIPS, EVENTS AND IDEAS                                                                                                                         By Maximillien de Lafayette, Syndicated Columnist

 

THE GATES BY CHRISTO AND JEANNE CLAUDE: A MONUMENTAL ART MASTERPIECE

New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg with noted artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude after unfurling the first fabric panels of The Gates in Central Park, New York city. Photo Credit: Edward Reid.
 

NEW YORK.- Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg got his hands on a national art treasure. This week, two internationally admired New York artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude captured the attention of the world art communities. Their masterpiece  "The Gates",  or the astonishing fabric panels symbolizing each of  New York's boroughs. This is a major art endeavor and creative undertaking by two artists who devoted their entire lives to art. More than  600 artisans and workers laboriously worked on the unveiling of Christo and Jeanne-Claude saffron-colored fabric which  is attached to each of the 7,500 gates. "The Gates" will cover an area of  23 miles of paved paths in Central Park.  Gates" will be on a public display through February 27, 2005. Christo and Jeanne Claude said ""All our work is about freedom. Nobody can buy our projects, nobody can sell tickets to experience our projects. Freedom is the enemy of possession and possession is equal to permanence. That is why our projects can not remain and must go away forever. Our projects are ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ and ‘once upon a time’." Vince Davenport told the media "The 15,000 steel bases and all other gate components have arrived and we are in the final phase of attaching the fabric panels to the horizontal poles. We are ahead of our original manufacturing schedule and are now focusing on the logistical plans to ensure a safe and successful installation."   New Yorkers have been anticipating the unveiling of The Gates for almost 25 years. Rating: 5 stars out of 5.

MICHEL MAJERUS MOVING PARTS: IT IS ONLY PROPAGANDA AND ART DISILLUSION. NOTHING VERY SPECIAL!

Photo: Michel Majerus, Controlling the Moonlight Maze, 2002.
 

GRAZ, AUSTRIA- Kunsthaus Graz presents Michel Majerus - Moving Parts - Forms of the Kinetic, through May 16, 2005. Majerus had a short life (1967-2002) but he had "left behind a remarkable body of works. In doing so he rushed through a database of both popular culture and art history. He not only followed the spirit of the 1990s, which was characterised by the digitalisation of culture, by techno and ecstasy but helped define it." claims a noted art critic. Another critic stated "What evolved from this was a mix of visual codes of high and low art, where Majerus made use of the medium of painting in a pronounced way. Ultimately, his spacious installations illustrated the productivity of a medium—painting." The curator of the show claims that the Kunsthaus Graz with its advanced architectural structure is an ideal setting for presenting Michel Majerus’ central space-oriented works. Michel Majerus never competed against painting. He rather added it to his palette of creative forms of expression in order to redefine the phenomenon of space with its help. His development as an artist ranged from the canvas as “arena” in Jackson Pollock’s works, via Barnett Newman’s color spaces to the transference of painting into the domain of object art in Pop Art; and eventually it led him into the virtuality of the gaming culture. And I have a problem with all these glowing jargoned accolades. Majerus' work is a colorful idea, a chronicle of pop culture BUT not a "mageure" and meaningful artwork . Propaganda and well-crafted publicity campaign  are distorting and exaggerating the significance and esthetic importance of Majerus' Moving parts. It is more of an art disillusion carnival than esthetic depth and substance. Rating: 1 star out of five.

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