A Puzzle’s Missing Part

“… Days before Christo and Jeanne-Claude had opened their much pooh-poohed ephemeral salute to the image in the form of an artobject they called “Gates” which she could see from the corner of W 59th Street and 5th Avenue, not far from Bergdorf Goodman, where she had shoplifted her coat.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s installation consisted of the unfurling of nearly eight-thousand saffron-colored gates made of fabric, each measuring sixteen feet in height, placed at intervals throughout twenty-three miles of walkways, lacing Central Park in a manner that, in the words of the director of the Metropolitan Museum, “...[art] will reaffirm the continuity of culture and importance of art to the life of our city and all cities…” The pedagogy of such statement should have prompted the mayor of Los Angeles, who happened, for some political reason, to be in attendance at the inaugural to ask the French artists to do something -- if something could be done at all-- with the L.A. River and South Central L.A.

As she crossed the street to enter the park, the exhibit reminded her of the first time when Christo and Jeanne-Claude wrapped in gold one of the oldest bridges in Paris, the Pont Neuf, which spans the Seine, west of Notre Dame.”

(From “Love at First Sight”, Paris Noir & Variations Rodrigo Palacios 2015)

In this excerpt, we can see how Central Park’s staggering natural beauty is blown up to ethereal heights by Christo’s and Jean-Claude’s installation. Any architectural space should undergo an analogous treatment in order to aspire to reach the world of perfection, the realm of Ideal Forms.  The addition of a painting, a piece of sculpture, a flower arrangement can perform miracles, as these could be the very missing part of the puzzle that allows the space to click - as it finally achieves its gestalt.