“Title This,” a game show created by painter Mark Kostabi in which art critics and celebrities compete to title his paintings for cash awards. Check out episodes on BlipTV.
Ravi Somaiya profiles Mark Kostabi in the Telegraph: “Kostabi’s paintings – often featuring faceless figues in surreal environments – can be found in museums and galleries from the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to the Galleria Nazionale D’Arte Moderna in Rome. He cites his influences as Caravaggio, Hopper, Picasso and Warhol. Yet there are those who question the validity of his art. ‘The work is very simple,’ one art-industry insider told me. ‘The themes are easy to figure out, and he often drops in an obvious reference to another painting, which makes people feel clever.’ Almost as clever as Kostabi, who is regarded as a talented self-publicist, networker, salesman and businessman. He’s certainly charming. Speaking to him is, for the most part, pleasant, even fun – not something that can be said for many in the notoriously po-faced New York art world….’Title This,’ says Kostabi, ‘evolved out of my original public access TV show which documented meetings at Kostabi World. Some of them were titling sessions and it went from there.’ That show achieved cult status, with the director Jim Jarmusch declaring it his favourite programme, and eventually moved from one camera in Mark Kostabi’s office to the elaborate set in front of me.” Read more.
