Christo and Jeanne-Claude : On the Way to the Gates, Central Park, New York City

In 2005, Central Park in New York City was the site of a much-loved and critically acclaimed project by Christo and Jeanne-Claude entitled The Gates. This installation consisted of saffroncolored fabric panels suspended from the horizontal tops of over 7,500 sixteenfoot- tall vinyl gates, positioned at regular intervals throughout twenty-three miles of walkways of the park. The installation was on view for sixteen days, beginning February 12, 2005. This exquisitely produced book celebrates the culmination of the artists' vision for The Gates, a project that began in 1979. Richly illustrated with photographs by Wolfgang Volz, the book features an introduction by Jonathan Fineberg that surveys the entire career of Christo and Jeanne-Claude and assesses their contribution to contemporary art and culture. The heart of the book consists of beautiful reproductions of the various preparatory collages and drawings that Christo created for The Gates project and detailed documentation of the personalities and events that led up to the project. This volume also features four highly engaging, unpublished interviews conducted by Fineberg with the artists, from the 1970s to a recent interview of July 2003. For those who admire the work of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, the city of New York, and contemporary art, this is the essential book on The Gates to own.

JONATHAN FINEBERG is Gutgsell Professor of Art History at the University of Illinois, Champaign. His many previous books include Christo: Surrounded Islands, Biscayne Bay, Greater Miami Florida, 1980-–83 (1986), Art Since 1940: Strategies of Being (1994), The Innocent Eye: Children’s Art and the Modern Artist (1997), and Discovering Child Art: Essays on Childhood, Primitivism, and Modernism (1997). WOLFGANG VOLZ has been the exclusive photographer for all of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s projects since 1972.