"Modernist obscurantism and feel-good communalism."

New Republic art critic Jed Perl slams The Gates -- even though it will create "one of the world's most beautiful urban spaces." Apparently, it's all too easy, too beautiful. It has "no core, no essence" -- "There isn't much of anything left once you've stripped these fun-with-fabric extravaganzas of all their logistical complexities."

Maybe it is purely lush and hedonistic, but why not give in to the sheer pleasure of beauty?