At this point in time, Bravo has exploited almost all of the arts: fashion, culinary, aesthetic design, hair styling, modeling. It was only a matter of time until they went for the big one right? Work of Art's debut was met with more criticism than most of these reality shows are: is the world not ready for something as highbrow as art to be watered down into a reality show? It worked with Project Runway, and, in my opinion, it works for Work of Art. Despite the slightly cheesy title, Work of Art is successful in what it aims to do: bring the attention of the art world mainly reserved for the New York Times to the American public.
Now, onto the recap. It doesn't take very long for this show to quickly resemble Project Runway, but why fix it if it ain't broke? A breakdown of our contestants via stereotypes: the crazy hippie Peregrine, grown-up hipster Trong, the vegetarian chain-smoking altbro Ryan, slightly ditzy Nicole, the token bitch Nao, the textbook hipster Miles, "that guy" Mark, "representative of the Baby Boomer era" Judith, some guy who I forgot about until this moment John, she of the fashionable clothes Jaime Lynn, "you wouldn't expect someone like me to be an artist" Jaclyn, amateur hour Erik, changed-jobs-from-something-slightly-more-dangerous Amanda, and down-to-earth Abdi. All of these people are exactly who I say they are and this perfect for reality tv. The contestants get a swanky studio to work in (yet not so swanky as to include a darkroom?) and a swanky (but not
too swanky) apartment to live in. Oh, and guess what? Sarah Jessica Parker is an executive producer! You didn't know that! Really? You know what I liked about the producers on Project Runway? THEY STAYED OFF THE SHOW. Speaking of authority figures, China Chow is adorable! Her
Wikipedia page doesn't say much, but I love her clothes and her nonchalant knowledge of the art world. All of the judges seem to be looking at the art from a critical and/or sellable viewpoint, which I like, because if there was an actual artist judging there might be some bias toward a certain type of art.
The assignment was simple: create a portrait of a person you were "randomly" paired up with. The artists were pretty low-key. Only Miles ran around like crazy, but that just who he is, right? Now, onto the fun part: the critiques. For now I'll just do the ones brought to the attention of the judges for extra critiquing because there's quote a lot of artists.
BEST OF THE BEST
From left to right: Mile's portrait of Nao, Mark's portrait of Erik, and Abdi's portrait of Ryan. I liked the idea of Miles' death photograph, although he acted like it was a new form of art when many modern artists had been doing it before. But no art is really original, so we'll move on. I liked finally being able to kind-of she how a screen print is done. The middle photograph, Mark's, is interesting because it's a different medium than everyone else. He's the only photographer on the show, and it's odd to see someone creating art from behind a computer screen instead of behind an easel. But that's where the money is nowadays: through Photoshop and graphic design. The graphic is nice, very commercial, but it sets it apart from, say, Miles's. I think Miles might end up being the judges' darling this season. Okay, last of the best: Abdi's. This one was my favorite, but I'm a little biased because I love paintings, I love color, and I love pop culture influences. This looks like it could be poster art from a Tarantino movie. I wish that Abdi would have won, but I can understand why the judges chose Miles to win; it's not a bad piece, sans the annoying plastic coming out from the side.
WORST OF THE WORST
Left to right: Amanda's portrait of Jaime Lynn, Nao's portrait of Miles, and Erik's portrait of Mark. Let's start on the left: Amanda's portrait was, well, not really a portrait. For a project that supposed to be about "the inner workings of your partner," she kind of made an abstract piece based on jewelry Jaime was wearing. To be fair, it's probably harder to sell your point as an abstract artist, but I'm sure there's something she could have done that would be more portrait-y. The middle one is a mess, too, but this would sell for form loft somewhere. Subtly chic, this portrait's only downfall was it's inability to look like a portrait (and its creator's bad attitude). And last, but not (?) least, Erik's. The judges and his fellow contestants were right: this looks like a high school art piece (I would know, I'm in a high school art class). It's not bad as much as it is... amateury? Creepy? Poorly put together? Okay, it's just bad. And Erik got all defensive, " I've never had any training," like he could slip that excuse under the judges' noses and make them smell the sympathy. Unfortunately for him, they didn't bite, but they did make excellent comments on how he basically painted a portrait of serial killer
John Wayne Gacy.
This show has promise. It was only the first episode, after all. And I saw multiple sledgehammers in the season preview, so I'm in.
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