Art as Entertainment Round-up

The love-hate relationship Americans have with Art has been leaning just a tad toward the love end lately, if its inclusion in our entertainment choices is any indication, anwyay. Here's a round-up of stories that lead me to suggest that:

1. My Super Ex-Girlfriend

Yes, I subjected myself to this painful drivel (God said it was either that or eternal damnation for my long list of sins...I chose poorly), but as we were walking out I noted how, for me at least, the art upstaged everything else in the drawn-out, bad SNL skit. Artnet.com tells the tale:

The New York Post says the new Uma Thurman-Luke Wilson comedy, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, is "20 minutes worth of sketch comedy filling a 95-minute hole," but art-world insiders have their own reason to catch the film. Thurman -- who plays the titular superheroine -- also has a secret identity as the "assistant curator" of. . . Nancy Hoffman Gallery on West Broadway in SoHo. There, she meets up with Wilson in the middle of an exhibition of new sculpture by. . . Kiki Smith. The art is "a little disturbing," says Wilson. "It’s surprising how frightening things attract us," Thurman replies -- and before you know it, they’re in bed together. Smith actually shows with PaceWildenstein Gallery, of course. Consultant for the film was PaceWildenstein dealer Marc Glimcher, whose father, gallery founder Arne Glimcher, was associate producer of Legal Eagles (1986) and director of The Mambo Kings (1992), among other Hollywood credits.

Our friend noted how he thought the work in the gallery was by different artists (and there were a few pieces I thought didn't rise to Kiki's best work, so perhaps he's right), but overall, it was a very welcome reprise from the only other entertaining aspect of the film: how bad Uma's wigs were. (I looked and looked for a photo of the gallery scene...if anyone finds one, please share. Many Thanks to Gregg Chadwick of Speed of Life for forwarding this shot of the scene in question!)

2. Pageant of the Masters

The New York Times today reports on the Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach, California, where art comes to life (usally only to remain as still as can be) in order to raise funds for local arts programs, exhibitions, and scholarships:

The Pageant of the Masters dates back to 1933, when a much smaller version was organized to publicize an arts festival featuring local artists, which is still held in tandem with the pageant each summer (this year from July 7 to Sept. 1.). Today the tableau vivant pageant has an all-volunteer cast of about 300, and over the years it has added themes, movement, singing and surprises — from a cowboy on a real horse to the uncorking of a 20-foot-tall champagne bottle — to maintain its appeal.

Of course, the article included the obligatory qualification:

Dickran Tashjian, a professor emeritus of art history at the University of California at Irvine who has seen the pageant three times, says that he finds it a technical marvel but that it cannot be compared with standing before the original art.

“The real thing is a lot better than Pageant of the Masters,” he said. “But if you see it as two different expressive forms, then the pageant is unique unto itself.”

3. ArtStar

Paddy has written extensively and well about this program, but unfortunately I haven't yet seen it---I don't have cable ;-( . But an interview on artinfo.com with the brains behind ArtStar, Jeffery Deitch, led me to wonder about the future of this alliance between high art and entertainment:

You notably say at the start of the first episode that in the 1970s, no self-respecting artist would have lined up to audition for a TV show. What has changed in the art world—or society in general—to make such an appearance acceptable and desirable today?

In the early 1970s, I couldn’t have imagined any person in my circle placing a personal ad, either; nobody I knew would have dreamed of finding friends or partners this way. Now, it’s the most natural thing in the world to use the Internet for social networking; there’s no stigma attached.

My point is that people today are communicating in a totally different way from the 1970s. Whereas it would have been perceived to be very uncool to stand in line for an open audition then, reality shows are a natural part of people’s lives today, part of the whole structure of American society. And the art world is not isolated from that.

Which got me to wondering about where this might lead. What about the business side of the art world...The Art World Apprentice: a high-powered gallery owner weeds his/her way through a dozen contestants competing to be the gallery's next director, or switch out gallery for museum and director for curator. Each episode could present some challenge (poach the rising star artist from a competitor or win over the aging trustee and convince them to donate their collection), with the winners advancing and the losers doing the talkshow circuit before sinking back into obscurity, and ending with some realworld lessons on how to succeed in the cut-throat art world, roping in a string of cameo appearances by the system's toughest and brightest. Or perhaps even more entertaining, the Studio Assistant version. An obnoxious high-powered artist runs ragged a selection of anxious emerging artists with the survivor's prize being a stint in the shadows, running errands and being belittled.

Ooops, there I go being all cynical again.

The truth be told, I was encouraged by the amount of screen time Kiki's work got in the film (ok, so even the director couldn't miss that it was the only interesting visual [other than the shark, but then...]). Perhaps Jeffrey's right. Perhaps it's impossible in an age where reality is the new entertainment for art to not reflect that.

God, I hope not though.