Just as I feared. It’s not just Jerry Saltz. Bravo’s Work of Art is deteriorating the discourse. Jen Graves’ post on the last episode is devoted entirely to what she thinks of the artists’ personalities. She ended with:
May the winner not be a douchebag.
Jen. Shake your usually admirable head to clear it. We care about art, remember? Look down and check the color of your jersey. You’re on the art critic team. Art critics don’t care who’s a douchebag, not that they would would presume to judge based on the edited clips of a reality TV show. (My last posts on the show here and here.) The question is, who’s making the best art, as far as the audience can tell, given the format. It’s Miles Mendenhall followed by Peregrine Honig and Nicole Nadeau. They’re not necessarily the best artists, but they are the best reality TV artists this sorry season.
really wish art critics would stop watching, or at least writing about, this show. There is no reason to pay attention to these artists – get back to the galleries please!
I have not been watching the show, but I have met one of the artist who is on it. Just becasue they are on a heavily edited reality show does not mean they do not have a place in the art world. As viewers we can not tell from a brief two second clip what they and their art is truly like.
However imperfect it is, I appreciate what Work of Art is attempting to do. It is trying to get an appreciation of art out into the mainstream. I feel it is attitude keeping art in the galleries which sometimes makes people want to stay away.
A good critic needs to keep their eye on everything that is going on. To ignore it is to be behind the times.
Just my thoughts…
None of my artist friends have seen this show. Critics, however, seem to be obsessed by it and can’t stop watching and writing about it. Especially Jen Graves. It’s really not interesting at all.