Lancette Arts Journal |
Art Reviews |
January 2005 |
Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Works
from the Weston Collection
on view at the AGO until May 15, 2005.
By Alidė Kohlhaas
When you enter the current exhibit, Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Works from the Weston Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), you will see a series of photographic images of Christo, 48 Views, very much in the manner of Michael Snow's Walking Woman or Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe. Taken by Toronto photographer Arnaud Maggs, they come as a surprise because Christo is known for being camera shy. Taken more than 20 years ago in Calgary, they are a fine study of Christo, and a perfect lead-in into the show.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude are collaborators in life and in an art form they like to describe as "land art". Their latest monumental project is in the process of being erected in New York's Central Park. It is named The Gates, a name borrowed from the way people refer to the entrances to Central Park that originally had been designed to be closed with metal gates, an idea that was scrapped. The Christo project consists of 7,500 rectangular vinyl gates hung with saffron-colored fabric that will flutter and billow in New York's February breezes to create what must surely be a spectacular sight along the park's walkways.
At the AGO, Christo and Jeanne-Claude are featured in an exhibition that has been deliberately set up to coincide with the opening of The Gates. It consists of some of the works collected by W. Galen Weston, the head of Canada's largest food empire. Weston didn't collect Christo and Jeanne-Claude's humongous wrapped objects. That would be humanly impossible. Instead, the collector focused his attention on Christo's . . .
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