Presenting “Work of Art”

I approached the idea of Bravo’s new reality TV show Work of Art with some disdain and apprehension. The idea of artistic competition, fenced by deadlines, assignments and criticism, is not new in the art world. I mostly had reservations having the ability to maintain artistic integrity within the framework of a reality TV show. After watching the season premier, I found myself pleasantly surprised. There is a value to seeing artwork in the context of a TV show like this one. It also helped that the art was really good.

The show becomes an unexpected way to bring art to a viewership that might not necessarily have access to emerging art. It lends itself to a gallery experience, showing both the art and how other people interact with it. In fact, the critical segment of the show, featuring some of the most famed art critics in New York, becomes a crash course in how to talk about and see art. It contracts the two-part process of reading an art critique in print—seeing and retaining the work, then understanding what the critique is referring to. It inadvertently trains the eye to discriminate not only based on presentation but also based on process.

There are, however, elements to the show that I still feel unsure about. Though each critique is preceded by a gallery show, in which the work has a chance to interact with a selected public, I want to see how other venues and contexts will affect the process and the work. (Art is never just the object itself, but what it is presented in, and how.)

Also, because of the set-up, the show overstates the role of critics in determining the success of a work. The reliance on this might just be a function of keeping the show efficient and moving forward. The deeper debates of art are relegated elsewhere. It is easy to see that the judging might become tricky because aesthetic preference has always been a touchy subject in our culture, which begat the saying “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”  The show might have a hard time identifying and consistently justifying criteria that define a successful art piece throughout the season. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this avoided entirely for the sake of keeping it digestible.

On the whole, it has something for art lovers, and drama lovers. I am optimistic.

Work of Art airs Wednesday nights, 11/10c on Bravo.