Art TV contests

The TV producing gods are at it once again with a sort of art star search show idea. The latest incarnation is on the Project Runway model. Only instead of fashion designers, they would judge artists. Read about it here.

Here's some of my thoughts as I ranted to a close artist friend....

The whole idea is flawed because it would set tasks for an artist to fulfill. I agree with art critic Robert Hughes when he says the job of the critic is to express how one observer confronts a work of art. The critic is not in the position to pronounce certainty.

It's essentially an art school model where students are assigned tasks. Once an artist begins to 'wade into' his/her obsessions and create individual work, the artist can no longer be told what to do. The artist tells.

So, in a show that eliminates artists based on perceived critical value assessments of work done within specified criteria of time, and subject, and material, nothing is truly resolved. It comes down to how well an artist pleases judges.

To quote one producer...

" [Art is] something we consume every day... whether it's your favorite coffee mug, an ad in a magazine or a mural you drive by on the way to work."

Produce a painting in a week. What if your method takes a month, a year?

Every one has to make a sculpture. What if you're a performance artist?

Paint a landscape. What if you're only interested in the human form?

I think it's asking artists to jump through hoops like circus animals and is totally irrelevant to their own, very specific practice.

The analogy to fashion design is faulty. Fashion designers operate in a commercial trade demanding a wide variety of skill sets to satisfy industrial demand. Fashion design is creative craftwork - not art - in my view.

I offer Giacometti as an example. For me the absurdity - beyond exposure - of the TV project is clear when we consider how Giacometti would fare as a contestant. Giacometti created very specific, focused, intense works. Imagine dictating an assignment to this artist outside the realms of his specific obsession with the human form. Imagine demanding Giacometti make a conceptual art work. Ridiculous. To sit in judgment for approval? He would take a puff of smoke, maybe smile, and walk away. That's what I think.

Photo: 'Alberto Giacometti' by Henri-Cartier Bresson