ArtPrize: where the people get what the people want and one artist gets $250,000
Hundreds of artworks ranging from the sublime to pure schlock, artists acting like candidates for public office, local media in a state of unabashed boosterism, and a voting system that widens the digital divide. Such is ArtPrize, an event guaranteed to induce alternating bouts of dismay and enthusiasm, such that the hardened art professional collapses in exhausted confusion. Yet the people love it.
Launched in 2009, ArtPrize is a competition that involves scores of art installations in and near downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan. It offers an award of $250,000 to a first-place winner, along with nine lesser awards, all chosen by popular vote, and seven professionally conferred awards. Total prize money is about $450,000.
The painting that won big in 2009 was an unconventional seascape by a Brooklyn artist named Ran Ortner. The large-scale work had real critical merit and those who were hoping that ArtPrize would not humiliate the city’s art community breathed a collective sigh of relief. The top winner in 2010 was a near-life-size pencil drawing of World War I soldiers, made by Grand Rapids artist Chris LaPorte. The trend toward large-scale and representational imagery was set, but institution of the juried awards, which hadn’t been part of the first ArtPrize, helped placate those who thought the competition was devolving into populist spectacle.
ArtPrize 2011 attracted about 400,000 viewers and more than 1,500 artists–the majority of whom came from Michigan. Several artists were from out of state, however, including seven or so from Texas, and a handful came from outside the U.S. Many or perhaps most competitors were amateurs, many were commercial illustrators or designers. A solid percentage were studio art majors or professionals of varying degrees of facility and sophistication. A mixed bag, then.
This year’s Top Ten works provoked immediate criticism from what few professional voices pitched in. They included two pleasant, nonobjective mixed-media entries; three caricaturish sculptures in welded steel; a droll installation of chainsaw-sculpted wooden bears; a performance piece that should have been a parody of Gilbert & George but was straight-ahead macho; a life-like sculpture of former President Gerald R. Ford; and an outdoor mural that was a mash-up of images.
The elephant in the room was a tesserae altarpiece representing a crucified Christ, by Mia Tavonatti from Santa Ana, California. Critics complained that an explicitly religious prize winner only would cement Grand Rapids’ reputation as religiously conservative and unsophisticated. Not to mention confirming the tendency toward big and representational. But, for better or worse, when votes were tabulated, Tavonatti’s work beat out the others and took the big purse.
ArtPrize founder Rick DeVos had his own, curious way of defending the competition’s outcome. The goal of ArtPrize, he said, ”is not to find better art through voting. … I just want to see crazy crap all over Grand Rapids and I think we’ve achieved that.” As a G.R. native and scion of one of the founding families of Amway, DeVos might be excused for being something of a twaz. For now, though, I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt and hoping that next year’s competition is more thoughtfully organized. After all, even families with money to burn surely aren’t eager to award it to crazy crap, are they? Nor is it sensible to implicitly equate crap with popular taste, even when it’s tempting to do just that.
For that matter, if DeVos and kin were willing to take some outside advice vis a vis ArtPrize 2012, here’s what I would say:
- Make it easier for people who aren’t Internet savvy to register and vote.
- Provide real and consistent logistical support for venues outside of the city center.
- Allow at least two weeks for people to view artworks before voting to establish the Top Ten.
- Reconfigure the awards so that there are juror-selected prizes equal to the popular awards.
- Keep in mind what one citizen told the Grand Rapids Press: “When you have the average, middle-class person viewing art, they are always going to lean toward representative [sic] art!”
Thanks to gorgeous weather, ArtPrize 2011 brought tens of thousands of people into central Grand Rapids, mostly to look at art. For hundreds of school kids on ArtPrize field trips, though, the real attraction was ramming around outdoors in the middle of the week. And the art? Some of it was terrific, a lot of it was nice and a whole lot of it was best forgotten. Photo credit: Janet Tyson
A detail from The Tempest (2011) by Laura Alexander, shown at the Grand Rapids Art Museum. The work measured about 9-by-8 feet and comprised five layers of hand-cut paper. Its delicate beauty, along with the evident patience required to produce it, earned it a place in the competition's Top Ten. Photo credit: Janet Tyson
Consisting of hundreds of dyed pieces of paper and several suspended lenses, Mesmer Eyes (2011) by Kathy Goodell was installed at the Grand Rapids Art Museum and seen by thousands of visitors during the competition. From a formal perspective, it was gorgeous and effectively installed. But Goodell didn't even attempt to offer anything beyond the optical experience. Photo credit: Janet Tyson
Venues located out of city center had a difficult time attracting voters. ArtPrize supported some opportunities for publicity, but did little by way of logistical support. Hidden in Plain Site (2010-2011), an oil painting by Fort Worth artist Sedrick Huckaby (in foreground), was outside the ArtPrize loop in an indoor athletic facility. Fortunately for Huckaby, Dana Friis-Hansen, who recently joined the Grand Rapids Art Museum as its director, took at least one group to see the work. Photo credit: Janet Tyson
As was the case with many ArtPrize artists, Huckaby had a chance to become friends with his venue hosts. Here, prior to de-installing his painting, he stands with Michelle and David VanderMeer, owners of Carpe Diem Volleyball. Photo credit: Janet Tyson
Rusty (2011), by Michigan artist Ritch Branstrom, was an example of the sort of work critics said did not deserve to be among the Top Ten picks. But this year's 10 finalists were no worse than those of previous years. A more likely explanation? Commentators, perhaps impatiently, expected viewers to be making better-informed decisions, what with the competition being in its third year. Photo credit: Janet Tyson
Santa Ana artist Mia Tavonatti's 13-foot-tall tesserae work, "Crucifixion" (2011), is an accomplished example of what a Baptist friend of mine called "holy card art". ArtPrize winners undeniably appeal to voters' need to recognize technical skill, which they take as proof of sincere engagement with the work, and respect for viewers. Photo credit: Grand Rapids Press/mlive.com
Austin artist Rino Pizzi stands in the midst of his installation, The Mona Lisa Project (2011), which incorporates photographic portraits of several Austin-area women involved in visual art. Pizzi was one of 32 artists invited to present at the Grand Rapids Art Museum, where works on view tended to be lyrical, generally thoughtful and occasionally provocative. Pizzi was overall impressed with the scope of the event, but wanted to see juried awards with cash value equal to those determined by popular vote. Only makes sense, if the competition is going to maintain credibility. Photo credit: Janet Tyson
The so-called Blue Bridge is a railroad trestle converted to a pedestrian bridge connecting a campus of Grand Valley State University with the city's central business district. As in years past, the featured work wasn't particularly engaging, but the walk over the river was undeniably pleasant. Photo credit: Janet Tyson
Tony Orrico's three-part wall drawing, Penwald 4: unison, symmetry, standing (2011), invited recollections of William Anastasi's work as well as of da Vinci's Vitruvian Man, thanks to the way each module was executed. In the opening days of the competition, Orrico stood flush to the wall, markers clutched in his outstretched hands, rhythmically moving and creating marks that recorded his movements. His performance was recorded and the edited video was shown as an accompaniment to the actual drawings. Another presentation at the Grand Rapids Art Museum, and my favorite of the lot. Photo credit: Janet Tyson
Last year's big winner was an immense pencil drawing by Grand Rapids artist, Chris LaPorte. ArtPrize 2010 marked the first year that the $250,000 prize was a purchase award. The drawing, now owned by ArtPrize Inc., was displayed in The Hub, a building that previously housed the Urban Institute for Contemporary Art, but now serves as ArtPrize headquarters--the UICA having since moved to a slightly more central location. Photo credit: Janet Tyson
A good-hearted but heavy-handed work by Houston artist Vinod R. Patel was displayed in the DeVos convention center. Here, a conscientious viewer reads Patel's statement. Connecting more directly with artists was something that visitors thoroughly enjoyed. Again and again, the impulse was to know the story and the individual behind the work--not something many art professionals, including artists, necessarily want to foreground. Photo credit: Janet Tyson
also by Janet Tyson
- Birding as Art? For Sanity's Sake: Yes - January 13th, 2013
- Remembering Ruth: Ruth Carter Stevenson, President of the Amon Carter Museum, is Dead at 89 - January 11th, 2013
- The year of Ken Price? - December 31st, 2012
- Dave, Dave, Dave - December 5th, 2012
- More Magritte - November 9th, 2012
Janet is correct in that artprize is a mixed bag. There were some great art, and all in all it is a very exiting event for the entire city. Still there is a need for and will be the continued reinvention and improvement of the process until it the event reaches it’s ideal state. For an event that is three years young I think it shows great promise. As a professional artist I do not hope to see another art event that follows the patterns that have already been set. Instead, something different, with a unique kind of energy. The hope is that it will be something that is fluid, everchanging, yet consistantly finding a way to acknowlege talented artist who’s work can speak to both experts and average people simulaneously. It will be a mixed bag of artist, and art where the unschooled, craftsmen and intellectual will all show side by side, each appealing directly to an equally mixed audience. So, janet does some insightful commenting and all should, if possible, come to Grandrapids to experience it for yourself.
Sedrick, thanks for pitching in with an artist’s perspective. I think that ArtPrize is going to need to work hard to keep professional artists interested–and to keep their work not completely isolated in professionally curated venues, but also out in the sketchier spaces.
I spent more than an hour the other evening debating with my friend Craig about the direction of the competition. He’s the guy I mentioned who owns buildings on Division and constantly is networking to further his commercial interests. His take on ArtPrize mixes a fine art and a business perspective, and he says we missed a big chunk of decent paintings at the Big Old Building.
I showed him photographs of your work and he was very sorry he didn’t see it.
My sense is that it will be at least a couple of years before the competition is sorted out. There still are too many people who don’t care about the overall quality of work and just want to see creativity (also known as ‘crazy crap’) for creativity’s sake.
If they were to make one change for next year, I hope it’s to extend the pre-voting amount of time for people to view art.
If they were to make a second change, I hope it’d be to provide better logistical support for peripheral spaces. Or just to rein in the boundaries and exclude outlier venues.
Third change? Seriously up the amount of money for the juried awards.
Implementing those changes are what they need to do if they want to attract serious national attention–and not just the skeptical coverage they’ve received so far.
Janet,
Thanks for the article and the great photos. I have been tempted to enter before but skeptical. Until now I have not seen photos of the work.
Not skeptical anymore. Will enter next time.
Janet,
Thanks for the great photos and article. Have thought of entering in the past but skeptical about the logistics etc.
Not skeptical anymore!