I have to admit that I have a few guilty pleasures on my TV agenda. Come on, we all do it, you know when no one else is around you have a show you watch that's nothing more than syrupy fluffy garbage. One of my current guilty pleasures or should I say 'train wreck you can't turn away from' is Bravo TV's Work of Art: The Next Great Artist. Yes yes, the obvious thing is that an art star reality show is the antithesis of what good art should be about and I wholeheartedly agree.
The whole concept is art-seminar senior year at art school at it's very best (which the show is at times and it's fairly interesting). At it's worst it creates another reason for most people to totally disregard and dismiss art, and showcases for the world that New York is not the center of the art world like it was in the mid to late 20th century. (If this is the best judging panel they could find from New York anyways).
The whole concept is art-seminar senior year at art school at it's very best (which the show is at times and it's fairly interesting). At it's worst it creates another reason for most people to totally disregard and dismiss art, and showcases for the world that New York is not the center of the art world like it was in the mid to late 20th century. (If this is the best judging panel they could find from New York anyways).
I must say though after stating the obvious above, 'the train wreck you can't turn away from', does have some good moments, but not many of them have to do with art. The good moments are that syrupy fluffy stuff I was talking about earlier, the useless indulgences. The personalities of the artists clashing, seeing the leaders, the ass-kissers, the manipulators,.. but that's true of any reality show and has nothing directly to do with the show's concept.
And unlike other reality shows like Top Chef and Project Runway, the judges here are 100% useless and devoid of experience and knowledge (as in being a successful chef, or fashion designer in the past like the judges on the other two shows). In Top Chef most of the judges (at least more than half) are always past chefs who have put in years of cooking experience. Although Work of Art's judges do own galleries and are art critiques, not a single one has ever been a successful artist in their own rite. Let me say that again, not a single one of the panel judges has ever been successful in creating their own art form on a long-term level, none of them. And no founding a gallery doesn't count, neither does being a critic, what counts is producing, marketing and living off of your art that you create directly with your own hands for years and years, which none of them have done.
The show's value is only in it's 'train wreck you can't look away from' aspect I described above. I recommend DVR'ing the artist interaction part of it, and fast-forwarding through the, judges who were never successful artists, but all just tools of the corporate industry and wise only in the ways of exploiting artists not being one giving advice to people doing things they themselves (the judges) have never been successful at, or even attempted. I mean how ludicrous and 'insider-art' pretentiousness is that, having judges who have never ever been succusful at or even attempted the thing of which they are judging. One or two critiques is understandable, but NONE of the panel judges have ever made their own art? Ludicrous, pretentious and really, really lame.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment