Work of Art: TOC weighs in on Bravo's "Next Great Artist"
(top row, left to right) Erik Johnson, Amanda Williams, Nao Bustamante, Judith Braun, Nicole Nadeau, Peregrine Honig, Trong Nguyen; (bottom row, left to right) Ryan Shultz, John Parot, Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, Simon de Pury, China Chow, Jerry Saltz, Bill Powers, Mark Velasquez, Miles Mendenhall, Jaclyn Santos, Abdi Farah and Jamie Lynn Henderson. Photo: Andrew Eccles, © Bravo.
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Judges (from left) Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, Bill Powers, China Chow and Jerry Saltz argue about Chow's headgear. We kid. That's not what they're doing. Photo: Barbara Nitke, © Bravo.
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Episode 1, "Self-Reflexive:" Miles wins the challenge with a screenprinted portrait of Nao. Photo: Barbara Nitke, © Bravo.
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Episode 2, "The Shape of Things To Come:" Miles wins again, this time by sleeping on his installation. Not shown: the anuslike pillows. Photo: Virginia Sherwood, © Bravo.
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Episode 3, "Judging a Book By its Cover:" John wins with this design for Penguin's edition of The Time Machine. I hope Jaclyn's admission that she'd never heard of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice was a mean editing trick. Photo: Barbara Nitke, © Bravo.
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Episode 4, "A Shock To the System:" Asked to produce "shocking" art, most contestants fall back on sex. Guest judge Andres Serrano (pictured, right) isn't impressed. Abdi's sculpture conflating three young black men's heads and grenades (pictured) wins. Photo: Barbara Nitke, © Bravo.
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Episode 5, "Art That Moves You:" Jaclyn wins with this photo installation targeting the creepy dudes who ogled her at the Audi showroom. Photo: Barbara Nitke, © Bravo.
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Episode 6, "Open to the Public:" Divided into two teams, the contestants attempt to create public art. Nicole takes charge and gets a chance to shine as her team's sculpture (pictured) wins. The other project, which I preferred, is doomed by infighting between Erik, Miles and Jaclyn. Photo: Barbara Nitke, © Bravo.
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Episode 6, "Open to the Public:" Divided into two teams, the contestants attempt to create public art. Nicole takes charge and gets a chance to shine as her team's sculpture wins. The other project (pictured), which I preferred, is doomed by infighting between Erik, Miles and Jaclyn. Photo: Barbara Nitke, © Bravo.
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Episode 7, "Child's Play:" Peregrine wins with this sculpture inspired by her childhood in a San Francisco art commune. Photo: Barbara Nitke, © Bravo.
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Episode 8, "Opposites Attract:" Forced to work together, Mark and Peregrine lose—and Mark's kicked off the show—for their diptych inspired by Mark's surgery scar. (The judges deem their interpretation of heaven and hell "too literal.") China Chow cries, proving to hundreds of thousands of surprised viewers that she isn't a robot. Photo: Barbara Nitke, © Bravo.
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Episode 9, "Natural Talents:" Asked to make art inspired by nature, Abdi warms even my shriveled heart with this amazing self-portrait, partly executed using dirt from Connecticut. The judges, remarkably, don't fault him for failing to depict a tree. Photo: Barbara Nitke, © Bravo.
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Episode 10, "The Big Show:" Abdi, Peregrine and Miles make it to the finale. Each artist is given $5,000 and three months to make work for a show at the "world famous Brooklyn Museum." I rooted for Peregrine's installation (pictured), which evoked a county fair. Photo: David Giesbrecht, © Bravo.
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Episode 10, "The Big Show:" Peregrine's photo of fetal twin fawns. Photo: David Giesbrecht, © Bravo.
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Episode 10, "The Big Show:" Miles presents abstractions of security-camera footage from a Minneapolis White Castle. Though the back story's affecting—the images depict a homeless man who froze to death a few days after he was filmed—the project comes off as too detached. Photo: David Giesbrecht, © Bravo.
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Episode 10, "The Big Show:" Abdi puts the finishing touches on a self-portrait. Photo: David Giesbrecht, © Bravo.
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Episode 10, "The Big Show:" Abdi's sculptures of athletes, self-portraits and other paintings are on view at the Brooklyn Museum through October 17. Photo: © Bravo, photographer: David Giesbrecht.
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(top row, left to right) Erik Johnson, Amanda Williams, Nao Bustamante, Judith Braun, Nicole Nadeau, Peregrine Honig, Trong Nguyen; (bottom row, left to right) Ryan Shultz, John Parot, Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, Simon de Pury, China Chow, Jerry Saltz, Bill Powers, Mark Velasquez, Miles Mendenhall, Jaclyn Santos, Abdi Farah and Jamie Lynn Henderson. Photo: Andrew Eccles, © Bravo.
08/26/2010
Work of Art: The Next Great Artist announced its winner almost two weeks ago, but the art world hasn't stopped griping about it yet. Because Bravo just issued a casting call for a second season of the reality show—the first season averaged about 1.2 million viewers—the conversation will continue for a while. You can see some highlights (or lowlights) of the season in our slide show, above.
In case you missed Work of Art (you can watch Season One's 10 episodes for free on CastTV), here's a summary: Fourteen artists, including a surprisingly large Chicagoland contingent, competed for $100,000 and a solo show at the Brooklyn Museum. (On the fifth floor, but still.) In each episode, they had to create art responding to a silly challenge—Make a work about your ride in a product-placed Audi, for example—in an absurdly small amount of time. At the end of each episode, judge China Chow booted someone off with the grating catchphrase, "Your work of art didn't work for us." Ouch. But did the show really hurt anyone?
1. Audience members who tried to turn Work of Art into a drinking game: Yes.
If you took a shot whenever contestant Jaclyn Santos painted or photographed herself naked, whenever the judges rewarded realism over abstraction or conceptualism, or whenever someone referred to the "world famous" Brooklyn Museum, by now you'd be cast on A&E's Intervention.
2. The contestants: Based on what I've watched and interviews with contestants—which, I believe, are likely tempered by agreements with Bravo—no.
Many contestants, even some who left early, parlayed their experiences into good publicity. Former Chicagoan John Parot's cover design for H.G. Wells's The Time Machine (Episode 3) has been published by Penguin. Miles Mendenhall has a solo show at judge Bill Powers's Half Gallery in New York. I'm sure we'll see more of runner-up Peregrine Honig, who had a solo exhibition in Chicago back in 2007.
3. Jerry Saltz: No.
The art critic took some heat for serving as a judge, but his recaps of the show for New York developed a big following.
4. The Brooklyn Museum: Yes.
While 23-year-old winner Abdi Farah improved amazingly during the last two episodes, he's not the Next Great Artist, and the museum shouldn't have treated him as such. But it was having a credibility crisis long before Farah's exhibition opened there August 14.
5. Civilization: Maybe.
While I can't bring myself to recommend Work of Art, I'm glad it aired. Every week, it gave me an excuse to talk about art with people outside the art world. It turns out those people are savvy enough to know that reality TV and reality aren't the same. How could the show warp the art world or change the way artists express themselves any more than market forces and M.F.A. programs already do? (Has Project Runway irrevocably altered fashion?)
Instead of acting like art is doomed, or bragging that you never watched, wouldn't it be more productive to tell your friends how Work of Art gets it wrong? Video and new-media art exist. Performance art shouldn't be too weird to win. An artwork's quality doesn't depend on how it makes us feel. And most artists make work about something other than themselves, at least occasionally.
For juicy criticism of Work of Art, check out:
Paddy Johnson's many posts about Work of Art at her blog Art Fag City.
Carolina Miranda's "Bravo's Work of Art Riles Up the Art World" in Time.
Karen Rosenberg's review of Farah's show in The New York Times.
Mary Louise Schumacher's "The art world gets caught up in reality TV" in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which includes a review of Farah's show and video interviews with contestants.
Saltz's argument in New York that Work of Art heralds a more democratic form of art criticism.
Los Angeles Times critic Christopher Knight's refutation of that argument. (Be sure to watch the video at the end.)
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