So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen™, adieu. Last night, it was indeed that time again, that tragic hour when the last of the fresh-faced gaggle of not-so-good artists must wave goodbye to the party, that art world soirée to which only the greats are invited. For Wednesday heralded the finale of Bravo’s Work of Art: The Read More
Paul Gauguin sailed all the way to French Polynesia to find his languidly exotic Tahitians. Swiss photographer Robert Frank drove straight across the U.S. to document the utter weirdness of The Americans. Diane Arbus plunged into the seedy underbelly of New York to bring back traces of its oddballs and freaks. Now, the art historians behind Bravo’s reality gem Work of Art: The Next Great Artist have brought this time-tested trope of artist-as-pioneering-colonizer/anthropologist straight to your TV set. On last week’s episode, Work of Art’s scholars argued that to be a truly great artist, one must leave the comfort of one’s Midtown West condo and vast studio space and venture out into the great unknown, to unveil the secrets of the “other” that inhabits the dangerous wilds beyond. Read More
“Come for a day, stay for a week,” reads the tourism website of Cold Spring, New York. That’s a fine slogan, but it did not, alas, apply to our intrepid contestants on Bravo’s Work of Art: The Next Great Artist this week, who were destined to hop a train from Grand Central for a brief, nervous jaunt up and down the town’s Main Street, during which time they marveled at how picturesque (read: creepy) everything was and how weird the locals were, before fleeing back to the (much less weird and creepy) world of reality television. Read More
“Throughout history, artists have always faced a struggle with art versus commerce,” Work of Art: The Next Great Artist contestant mentor and real-world auctioneer extraordinaire Simon de Pury professed, with the sweeping arm gesture of a true scholar, in the latest episode of our favorite reality-TV survey on the Art World at Large. We eagerly nodded as we scribbled “history = art v. commerce” in our Trapper Keeper. If it’s on Bravo, it’s probably true. Read More
“The following program may contain material that is unsuitable for young viewers. Parental discretion is advised,” read the ominous title card preceding last night’s episode of Bravo’s art-world reality romp, Work of Art: The Next Great Artist. Immediately thereafter, the sassy sex-kitten contestant, Lola Thompson, — who probably still gets carded trying to buy tickets to R-rated films — proclaimed, “I need to put more of myself out there to show the judges more of who I am.” One didn’t really need to keep watching. It was already clear that Ms. Thompson was going to get naked. Read More
Black Friday has come and gone, and The Observer made it through mostly unbruised, even though we live near a Macy’s. We were neither pepper-sprayed nor shot. And what did we earn for our perseverance, other than electronics we don’t fully understand (it’s definitely either a musical tie rack or a radio-toaster)? Why, a thirst for the unabashedly commercial, a desire for further outlets for our gluttonous lust for all things branded and shiny, and payable-off in installments. Read More
The art world is in Miami. The Sucklord has been booted from the rarefied realm of reality television and is lurking somewhere, probably in Miami. So what do we have left, here at home, to be thankful for? Why, the fact that the search for the next great artist continues for us on the Bravo cable television channel, of course. On Wednesday night, there were seven contestants left in the art-critical arena, and yes, they were challenged, as all artists have been since time immemorial, with the task of creating art to please car-manufacturing television sponsors. Read More
Oh, O.K., fine, if you insist on twisting The Observer’s arm, we’ll admit it: sometimes the shtick of this column—which posits that one can learn absolutely all there is to know about the state of contemporary art today by watching an art-themed reality television show—is flawed. Read More
“Will you massage my vagina?” contestant Sara Jimenez asked of her (openly homosexual, for what it’s worth) fellow contestant Young Sun Han at the outset of the sixth episode of Work of Art: The Next Great Artist. Indeed, Bravo — after having made us pretty wary by moving Top Chef to Texas of all godforsaken Read More
Last week The Observer dropped by the opening of the Museum of Modern Art exhibition of murals created by radical Mexican painter Diego Rivera 80 years ago for his first monographic show at MoMA. And it was crazy. Were the murals rife with searing political images of revolution and the oppression of the agrarian and working classes? Probably. But we wouldn’t know, because the event was so mobbed that guards were barricading the stairs, bouncing back those hordes of art-world denizens drunkenly attempting to stampede the show. Read More
