Remembering NYC’s Coolest Art Exhibits: Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Gates

NEW YORK CITY, U.S.A. Ten years ago, Bulgarian artist Christo Yavacheff and French artist Jeanne-Claude, together also known as Christo and Jeanne-Claude, illuminated the Big Apple’s grim winter landscape with a series of orange gates in Central Park. The gates alluded to the torii gates of Japan, where they can usually be found at the entrance to Shinto shrines.

The exhibition lasted from February 12, 2005 to February 27, 2005, but the artists officially named it “Gates, Central Park, New York, 1979–2005”, referring to 1979 as the year when they originally began proposing the idea, and to 2005, when they were finally able to install it.

There was much controversy about the gates, with those protesting arguing that the gates were marring the natural landscape, and moreover being an impediment to cyclists (even though biking is illegal in that very area).