ARTSTAR

CREDIT: Artnet News

Jan. 19, 2010 

REALITY TV MEETS CONTEMPORARY ART
Is the contemporary art scene truly ready for its “Project Runway” moment? Because it’s on the horizon, as the Bravo cable network prepares to air Sarah Jessica Parker’s “Work of Art: The Next Great Artist,” beginning in June 2010. It seems quite likely that the wide television exposure — the show is scheduled for 14 episodes, with many repeats, if it is a success — will make stars out of its art-world participants, some of whom already show up occasionally on PatrickMcMullan.com. Playing emcee (the Tim Gunn role) is suave Swiss auctioneer Simon de Pury, who co-hosts with China Chow (the Heidi Klumm role), a glamorous model and sometime actress.

The panel of three judges includes former BlackBook mag editor Bill Powers, who now directs the Half Gallery on Forsyth Street in Manhattan (and who is married to designer Cynthia Rowley), the elegant power-dealer Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn (who operates Salon 94 gallery at two locations, on East 94th and Freeman’s Alley) and New York magazine art critic Jerry Saltz (who also publishes in these pages, of course). “The Next Great Artist” starts with 14 artists, who are said to be a varied bunch, men and women of assorted disciplines, including at least one photographer and one architect, ranging in age from their 20s to their 60s. The artists are each given a work space in one large studio, and in each episode face a specific challenge, with the three judges eliminating one contestant every week.

Is there any crying, as on Tyra Banks’ mean “America’s Top Model”? Surely there’s some nudity; what is bohemia without nudes? Bravo is keeping mum on these and other questions, including the exact nature of the weekly challenges, though insiders suggest that they’re nothing out of the ordinary: do a portrait or corporate commission, say, or make a work for something like the upcoming “Haunted” show at the Guggenheim Museum. Filming for the series is just about done, and the winner, according to Bravo, receives not only an unspecified cash prize, but also an exhibition at “a nationally recognized museum.” This we’ve got to see.

Jerry Saltz: Artist-Eater; ©2010 PJM