Another season of Work of Art is behind us, and I can’t help but feel a bit let down. The season finale proved a bit uneventful and more than a tad predictable. But, even though something seemed to be missing, the season produced some memorable pieces. Continue reading
It’s getting serious, so it was time for a road trip to get our surviving art prodigies out of the city to reconnect with small-town life. Destination: Cold Spring, NY. It was never explained why the producers chose Cold Spring for the challenge of finding a stranger to act as the subject of a portrait. Continue reading
This week I stand appalled. This episode was a good example of how a reality show can take a good idea and ruin it by trying to make a challenge unnecessarily difficult and by manipulating an outcome by offering a prize that is unrelated to the basic premise of the show. No artist on the judges’ panel was the least of the offenses this week. I guess the show’s producers couldn’t locate a high-profile underwear artist who would agree to appear on camera. Continue reading
I’m sorry for how late this post is. I’ll blame it on jetlag.
This episode of WOA was brought to you by Fiat. I don’t know about you, but I’m getting mighty annoyed with all the product sponsorships on this show. And my ire is not necessarily with having an episode sponsor per se but with having the challenges be so product driven.
This week brought us our second team challenge. The eight remaining contestants were arranged in teams of two and charged with creating a large-scale piece of street art. The judging was respectable with another artist on the panel, which always makes me happy, and I found agreement this week with the judges’ decision regarding top and bottom. Continue reading
This week the artists were challenged to create a piece inspired by a pretty broad source: a New York Times’ newspaper headline. The prize was $20,000 and the opportunity to have the winner’s piece on display at the NYT headquarters. Unlike the Entertainment Weekly challenge, no one from NYT appeared on the panel but I sensed their influence nonetheless. Continue reading
So far we’ve had two challenges that were fairly broad – do something related to motion and make a piece of Pop art – and two based on another piece of art work – the kitsch challenge and this week’s kid’s art challenge. Continue reading
Episode 3 of WOA offered up a head-on collision between the integrity of art criticism and reality TV’s addiction to product endorsements leaving the integrity of art criticism in traction. Yay! And while they added an artist back to the judging panel this week, it was still very clear who made the final decision on the win. Continue reading
Sorry for the delay on this post. My lack of cable is becoming an issue! And my sister, Tina, is visiting, which has been a delightful distraction. Also, I’m having a difficult time finding photos from the show to accompany my posts. If anyone has any ideas on this one, please let me know. Okay, so enough with the apologies and excuses. Let’s get on with the show! Continue reading
The main strength of the first season of Work of Art – which seems to remain intact for season 2 – was its glimpse inside the artistic process. Even though the process is skewed due to the artifice of the weekly challenge, it is informative to see how different artists approach solving a problem (i.e. to fulfill the dictates of a challenge in a way that meets the judges’ expectations) as filtered through their particular style. Continue reading