ArtPrize critics underwhelmed by winner

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - Rosa Parks Circle was swarming with ArtPrize fans who watched the finale of ArtPrize 2011 on the big screen set up in the plaza. Many applauded when founder Rick DeVos announced the winner: Mia Tavonatti's stained-glass mosaic, "Crucifixion."

But some of the art teachers 24 Hour News 8 talked to were underwhelmed.

"It's a beautiful piece, masterfully done, but it's something we've seen for generations, thousands of years, and in the eyes of the general art public, it's going to maybe be laughed at," said Cindy Todd, teacher at Kendall College of Art & Design. "It's not that the piece is poor, but there's no innovation."

Critics fear the winner and the Top 10, for that matter -- chosen after 383,000 votes were cast by the public -- could keep some artists away in the future.

"I think we had fewer artists this year than the year before, and I can see where some artists would become, 'is it really worth the money, the expense, the time that I put into this, when it becomes a popularity contest of larger pieces that are visible?'" said City High School art teacher Anne Krenselewski.

The winners were all in high-traffic venues: "Rain," in third place, at the Grand Rapids Public Museum; second place "Metaphorest" on East Fulton Street; and "Crucifixion," at Devos Place.

"There were some beautiful pieces I saw that were small, that were more personal that would have qualified easily, but they just aren't seen as important," Krenselewski said.

Of course, there are those who criticize the critics, including Judy Kelley, who liked the Crucifixion, but preferred the bears in the fountains at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum.

"Everybody has their own opinions, you know, and people are going to say what they want to say, but to me, I think the art critics are totally wrong about that," Kelley said.

Kendall art teacher Susan Bonner is aware of the criticism, and she disagrees with it.

"I do believe ArtPrize is for the people, and the people have spoken, and that is what ArtPrize is all about," she said.