There are many artists who helped establish the Environmental/Green Art movement. Please, if you have any you would like us to cover here on the site, let us know.
For now I want to focus on a different type of Environmental Art because I think there is a great deal we can discuss about these two artists.
Christo and Jean-Claude have been working together on various projects since the 1960s creating installations in urban areas all around the world.
Visit their website for more information.
Wrapped Monuments to Leonardo da Vinci Piazza Scala, Italy, 1970What I find interesting is that they consider themselves Environmental Artists. Not because they are attempting to deliver a message in regards to protecting the environment, but simply because their art is out in the environment.
I think that many times most art that is out in nature is immediately tagged as being a voice for environmental protection. In their own words, they are environmental artists
"because they created many works in Cities – in Urban environments – and also in Rural Environments but NEVER in deserted places, and always sites already prepared and used by people, managed by human beings for human beings. Therefore they are not "Land Art" either."
Umbrellas, Japan and USA, 1984-1991So, where does that leave the definition of the Green Art movement? Does it include all art done out in the environment? Or are there two separate categories, those artists concerned with the state of the environment and those who simply do their work outside of the studio? In the beginning (as noted in the first post this week) in the 1970s art done outside was not necessarily done for political reasons. It is not to say that those artists weren't concerned with the state of the environment, rather they weren't making a political statement with their art.
The Gates, Central Park, New York, 1979-2005Should artists who make work outside be part of the Green Art Movement or are there standards that need to be followed in order for them to be able to be in that category. Does it even matter?
It is interesting because when I think back to the beginning of Land Art I automatically think about the future and where art in regards to the environment may be heading.
1 Comments:
i love christo and jean claude. i love them for the ecosystem they create for their work--from concept/inception, to self-funding, to hiring people at whatever wage needs to be paid (union scale in many cases), to installing, to inviting the people that make their art art--the witness of the masses that are included as "material" in the fulfillment of their works, to the striking and recycling of materials used to create their works. i love their scale and their scalability. i love that everything they've ever done they've conceived of doing. i love that they can't be bought. i love that they make their work in visible ways in the world--and cause us to see the world they've made inside of in such different ways. i love their vision. i love what they make possible for other artists.
recently, i visited the overhaul of the governor's mansion in sacramento. i thought of what could be possible--for art and artists and public art--if someone used the christo concept, but specially designed the drapes and scaffolding required to do large scale architectural renovations. i thought about how cool it would be if artists offered their images to be printed on the materials that drape the re-construction zones. i thought about the way central park looks now in the mind's eyes of those who have seen the golden gates. i thought of the way their work lives on in memory and imagination in all who hear about, rave about or rant about their work.
i think these guys--with big vision and grandiose seeming scale--have a wholistic vision--whole--all the way from concept to recycling with all the economic realities of each piece of their process faced boldly and with integrity every step of the long, long way.
i think they walk softly on the earth and leave no footprints.
and that makes me love them even more.
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