Jerry Saltz writes about his experience as a judge on Bravo’s Work of Art in this week’s New York magazine, but in many ways he is really writing about the art world — and he’s right on target.
Let me count the ways:
- “The art world has a love-hate relationship with visibility, entertainment, and anything populist. It claims to be open but relentlessly polices its borders for anything as alien as this show was bound to be.” How true. Another example: ArtPrize, which I think was great for encouraging excitement about art in Grand Rapids, and beyond — but which has been pretty much systematically ignored by the art world. This attitude frequently looks, to outsiders, as hypocrisy.
- “A lot of the challenges were inane — telling an artist to create a work based on an experience in an Audi showroom, or to make ‘shock art’ can only produce stupid results.” But, I say, where would producers get such ideas if they didn’t think the contemporary art world was all about commercialism — if, here, an extreme — and going beyond the boundaries of what’s generally acceptable?
- “…the choice of Simon de Pury…as mentor was misguided; …the head of a swanky auction house — which is about making money — shouldn’t advise young artists about anything, ever.” True, but see first item above: just who from the real art world was going to agree to be mentor? The Brooklyn Museum was pilloried for giving over a gallery to the winner for a matter of weeks.
- “…since finishing the show, I’ve caught myself in galleries thinking, ‘This art isn’t much better or worse than the stuff on Work of Art.’ ” Ooops.
- “I failed at practicing criticism on TV. I wasn’t nearly clear or articulate enough about why I liked or disliked things.” At least Saltz usually does better in print… not so for many critics.
Saltz also reveals how frequently he was stopped on the street, and sent thousands of comments — noting that many of these people said they’d never written about art before, but were “as articulate as any art critic.”
Here’s a link to his recap.
UPDATE, 9/15: It looks like Saltz is getting even more popular, probably because of his stint on Work of Art — and that’s a good thing. Today, he announced that he’s starting a new column on New York magazine’s Vulture website, Ask The Art Critic: “anything you want about art, art careers, art dealers, prices of art, why critics write about artists, how critics are edited, what makes a good dealer, a bad dealer, how to get back at snarky critics, how to behave around critics, what’s up with reality TV, what makes a curator good, bad, or worse.”
Send questions to ArtCritic@NYmag.com. Keep them clear, simple, short, and sign them — preferably. The column starts Monday, Sept. 20.
As I wrote Saltz, “congrats — more attention for art.” And I mean it.
BACK TO THE ORIGINAL POST:
I never saw the harm in Work of Art, and figured something good may have come of it. Looks to me as if something could, easily.
Photo Credit: Portrait of Saltz by the show’s winner, Abdi Farah, Courtesy New York magazine