Tuesday 24 November 2009

School of Saatchi, BBC2, 23 November

The curse of reality TV has finally visited the world of contemporary art. A panel consisting of critic Matthew Collings, artist Tracey Emin, collector Frank Cohen and curator Kate Bush (sadly not THE Kate Bush) deliberated over the talents or otherwise of several young art graduates before leaving the mysterious Mr Saatchi to choose just six to go forward to the next round. Saatchi, being the recluse that he is, was represented on Earth (or in this case TV) by his rather stilted spokeswoman probably called Rebecca or Deborah or something.

TV has chosen best chef, singer, rock band, choir, dancer and even mechanic in recent years, so best onanist must surely be coming soon (no pun intended). Although I hate such formats, I found this programme almost watchable. The quality of the artworks was predictably uneven, but there were enough good ideas to make future episodes probably worth seeing.

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