Today’s special edition comes from one of our favorite collaborators—Joseph O. Holmes—and will only be available for the next 24 48 hours. Read on for details about the edition, or click on through now to get your print of The Gates, Central Park Pond, Joe’s gorgeous photograph commemorating the 10th (!!) anniversary of Christo and Jean-Claude’s legendary installation piece.
The Gates, Central Park Pond by Joseph O. Holmes
11"x14" ($60) | 16"x20" ($240)
The intrepid Mr. Holmes haunts our streets daily, and has a particular knack for capturing all the magic of NYC that we might forget to notice in the bustle of our day-to-day. Today’s edition is a reminder that he’s been at it for years, that we’ve known each other—and worked together!—for an awfully long time now, and that time definitely speeds up as you get older.
It’s hard to believe that it’s already been 10 years since The Gates’ saffron flags dotted Central Park, and it’s even harder for me to imagine that many people on the 20x200 team were still in school when this ambitious project, 26 years in the making, was unveiled.
The Gates was intentionally a very limited installation, officially lasting just 16 days, despite the fact that it took years to plan and it took longer to install and dismantle than the official run. Christo called it “a temporary work of art.”
“The temporary quality of the projects is an aesthetic decision. Our works are temporary in order to endow the works of art with a feeling of urgency to be seen, and the love and tenderness brought by the fact that they will not last. Those feelings are usually reserved for other temporary things such as childhood and our own life. These are valued because we know that they will not last. We want to offer this feeling of love and tenderness to our works, as an added value (dimension) and as an additional aesthetic quality.”
Its ambition and unlikely realization riveted the city when it was installed, and though it wasn’t without its detractors, even the grumpiest of New Yorkers had to admit that it was quite an achievement to create an installation so vast and so, well… useless (by C+JC’s admission!) In the dead of winter. In one of the most iconic parks in the world. And—after all the time, effort and millions spent— it lasted just over two weeks. By design.
Joe’s been talking to us about releasing this edition to commemorate the anniversary for months now, and we all agreed that it would be most fitting to pay homage to its limited-in-time nature by limiting the time of its availability. That’s why the size of the edition run of The Gates, Central Park Pond will be defined by the number of people who buy it between now and Thursday, 2/26 at 1 pm ET, after which time it will never be available again.
With art for everyone,
Team 20x200
