CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - More than a quarter of a century after they first proposed outfitting New York's Central Park with 1,000 fluttering, saffron-colored fabric panels, artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude will at last see an even grander, larger-scale version of their dream realized next February.
The park won't be transformed for several more months, but a drum roll of sorts for the massive outdoor art project is sounding already inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art, located on park grounds. On view at the museum through July 25 is a prelude exhibition, "Christo and Jeanne-Claude: The Gates, Central Park, New York, " featuring drawings, collages and other preparatory studies, as well as a sample of one of the gates. Also generating advance interest in "The Gates" project is a new book by Jonathan Fineberg, the Gutgsell Professor of Art History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
The book, "Christo and Jeanne-Claude: On the Way to the Gates, Central Park, New York City" (Yale University Press), doubles as the exhibition catalog and includes photographs by Wolfgang Volz, and reproductions of collages and drawings associated with the project, many of which have not been published previously. Fineberg also documents the many obstacles the artists had to negotiate - beginning in 1979 - before city officials finally granted them permission to mount their monumental work in the park. Weather permitting, "The Gates" will be installed Feb. 12, and will remain on view through the end of the month.
 | | Photo by Bill Wiegand | | Jonathan Fineberg | | |
" 'The Gates' is a remarkable story of artistic vision, persistence in the face of long odds, years of hard work, and a creative collaboration that seems to grow more interdependent with time," Fineberg wrote.
"This temporary work of art will consist of about 7,500 custom-made rectangular frames, 16 feet tall, placed at approximately 12-foot intervals and spanning 23 miles of walkways in Central Park. In February, the coldest part of the New York winter, when the light tends to be sharp and clear and all the leaves have fallen from the trees, the thousands of shimmering panels will be the most colorful sight in the landscape, and every viewer will see them in a different way."
In addition to focusing on "The Gates," Fineberg's book relates the larger story of two unconventional artists with a shared vision that has caused people the world over to question and redefine traditional concepts and definitions of art. In the book's first 60 pages of introductory text, Fineberg treats readers to a richly illustrated history of the couple's work leading up to "The Gates" project - from Christo's early wrapped bottles, packages and oil cans, to the couple's more elaborate, highly orchestrated projects in which they directed the wrapping of major buildings and even a section of the Australian coast. Other projects documented in the book - which have generated considerable public interest - include "Valley Curtain, Grand Hogback, Rifle, Colorado, 1970-72"; "Running Fence, Sonoma and Marin Counties, California," 1972-76; Surrounded Islands, Biscayne Bay, Greater Miami, Florida," 1980-83; and "The Umbrellas, Japan-USA, 1984-91."
Additional insights on what motivates, inspires and even frustrates the artists emerge through the book's transcripts of interviews with Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Fineberg draws out lively, behind-the-scenes stories about the evolution of various projects, as well as explanations of how and why the artists insist on financing their work entirely through self-generated funds. The most recent conversation took place last year; the first, in 1977, when Christo visited the Illinois campus, at Fineberg's invitation, to participate in a lecture series organized to celebrate the centenary of the School of Art and Design.
"I've been interviewing him for nearly 30 years," said Fineberg, whose previous books include "Christo: Surrounded Islands, Biscayne Bay, Greater Miami Florida, 1980-83," published in 1986. "On the Way to the Gates," he said, is "the most comprehensive" book written to date about the artists and their work.
 | Archival photo Christo, left, and Jonathan Fineberg, the Gutgsell Professor of Art History at the UI, chat with students on the UI campus in this 1977 photo. | | |
And much has been written over the years in both the popular and art presses about the eccentric couple who've elevated into art forms both their penchant for fighting bureaucracies and for spending their own money - rather than collecting it, as most successful artists do. Judged by what has been written, their work remains an enigma for the masses.
According to Fineberg, each of the artists' major projects has been driven by different goals and motivations, and shaped largely by the unique, natural environments in which they are installed. Yet, the art-history scholar in him detects a common thread.
"Works of art are important for society," he said, "because they get us to examine things emerging in our culture before we have words with which to discuss them. This work will open people's eyes to many things about New York, about our culture, and about ourselves."