Brouhaha in Central Park: the Gates

Apparently you either love the Gates or you hate them. I'm impressed that Christo and Co. footed the entire bill of $21 million! I'm not a fan of conceptual art, but I do appreciate that Christo and Jean-Claude did not feel compelled to bloviate on the "meaning" of their orange gates. They simply said you need to experience them. I will never "experience" the Gates, but I must admit that I like the idea of large, colorful structures arching over the footpath. Like much of their other work, I find it whimsical. If I lived in New York and had to endure its harsh and dismal winters, I'd like a bit of color in my park to perk me up. Is it necessary? No, but then most art isn't. Does it need to have a purpose or meaning to be enjoyed? I don't think so. However, I read this quote in city-journal by Myron Magnet:

"The opposite of cheerful, the gates are oppressive, claustrophobic, even on a brilliant winter Sunday. They crowd as inescapably together as riot police, and are just as lumpish in their inelegant proportions and angular profiles. Like the riot police’s plastic shield and shiny helmets, their materials proclaim Industrial Man’s brute mastery over the elements, producing by unimaginably powerful forces, in white-hot furnaces and giant petrochemical vats that only legions of technicians could design and run, the steel and nylon that shoulders aside the trees and sky."

Now this description seems a bit overwrought, but after reading it I looked at the photos of the Gates again and I understand his point. They do look like lumbering robots draped with frippery to soften their hard edges. So maybe the execution wasn't as successful as it could have been, but would Mr. Magnet be happier if the Gates were in the Art Nouveau style? They wouldn't match his criticism above then. So is the problem with how the gates were built, or with the very idea of having colorful Gates trail the footpath? If it's the former, then I would agree. However if it's the latter, then I think it's much fuss over nothing and only shows a lack of imagination. However, if the very IDEA of the Gates is that they should be bulky behemoths so as to make us feel small and oppressed, then I too would say Kick Christo Out!