International Artists Lecture at Blair

The Blair community had the privilege of hearing from world-renowned artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude (creators of The Gates in Central Park and various other large-scale projects around the world) as part of the Society of Skeptics program in Armstrong-Hipkins on the evening of September 29. The artists discussed several of their current installations, aided by a slide presentation, then entertained questions from the audience.

Objects around campus were “wrapped” in preparation for these special guests, with art students studying their work beforehand. Dr. Mark Moon ’84 was instrumental in providing this unusual and exciting opportunity to Blair.

Jeanne Claude and Christo noted that the last time they took a vacation was 51 years ago; “Art is our life,” they said, referring to the “joy and beauty, love and tenderness” involved in what they do.

The September 30 edition of New Jersey Herald included an article on the event by Tom Howell Jr.; read it below. For more information on Jeanne Claude and Christo, visit their official Web site: http://www.christojeanneclaude.net

Duo Shares Love of Art with Blair Students
By TOM HOWELL JR.

BLAIRSTOWN – Prompting artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude to choose their favorite project is like asking a parent which child they love the most.

The pair, both 74, have poured decades of their lives into large-scale environmental artworks, which include surrounding Floridian islands with floating fabric in 1983, wrapping Berlin's Reichstag in fabric in 1995 and setting up thousands of saffron-colored gates in Manhattan's Central Park in 2005.

They pay for their projects with their own money, never accepting grants or sponsors.

“We never do other people’s ideas,” Jeanne-Claude told a capacity audience Tuesday at Blair Academy. “The best way to kill a good idea is to propose it to us.”

The majority of their time is spent obtaining permission to enact their projects, as shown in a slide show of artworks and photos of board meetings with government officials and landowners. “Everything in the world belongs to somebody,” Christo said.

Some projects have been in the works for decades. They’ve completed 22, but rejections have prompted 37 failures, Jeanne-Claude said.

The couple’s presentation was hosted by the academy's Society of Skeptics, a lecture series founded in 1977 as an outgrowth of an existing forum on world issues and current events.

The lectures, organized by history instructor Martin Miller, are open to the public – Tuesday’s event was an exception – and have brought in the likes of former Gov. Thomas Kean, CNN’s Lou Dobbs and sportswriter/TV host Tony Kornheiser. “It really does run the gamut,” academy spokeswoman Melanie McMahon said.

Christo Vladimirov Javacheff was born in Bulgaria June 13, 1935, the same day that Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon was born to French parents in Morocco. They even were born the same hour, but with “two different mothers,” Jeanne-Claude quipped. The couple, who permanently moved to New York City in 1964 and only use their first names, met in Paris in 1958.

Their massive, temporary projects, including an ambitious proposal to suspend fabric panels over a section of the Arkansas River in Colorado, are intended to enhance the lives of people that experience them and to satisfy an artistic urge that defies definition in utilitarian terms.
“What’s the use of a Mozart symphony?” Jeanne-Claude asked the audience. “But thank God he did it.”

Of the duo’s many projects, tri-state area residents are most likely to remember “The Gates,” a display of 7,503 fabric panels that wound through 23 miles of walkways in Central Park. The exhibit of free-hanging panels – each 16-feet-tall and ranging in width from 5 feet, 6 inches to 18 feet – was held for 16 days before being taken down and industrially recycled, according to the artists' Web site.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude are working with the U.S. Department of the Interior to move their project in Colorado, including the completion of an environmental impact statement that began in the spring and will take nearly two years to complete.

The couple also is planning to build “The Mastaba” – a massive structure of about 410,000 stacked oil barrels – in the United Arab Emirates. “The last time we took a vacation was 51 years ago,” Jeanne-Claude said. “Art is our life, and we simply live.”

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Click here for the entire fall Skeptics schedule.

Updated 10/1/2009

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