''The Kostabi Show'', formerly known as ''Title This'', ''Name That Painting'' and ''Paint That Naming'', is a television

game show A game show (or gameshow) is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment where contestants compete in a game for rewards. The shows are typically directed by a game show host, host, who explains the rules of the program as well as commentating a ...

where art critics and

celebrities Celebrity is a condition of fame and broad public recognition of a person or group due to the attention given to them by mass media. The word is also used to refer to famous individuals. A person may attain celebrity status by having great w ...

compete to title paintings by

Mark Kostabi Kalev Mark Kostabi (born November 27, 1960) is an American painter, sculptor and composer. Early life Kostabi was born in Los Angeles on November 27, 1960, to Estonian immigrants Kaljo and Rita Kostabi. He was raised in Whittier, California and ...

for cash awards. Participants have included

Ornette Coleman Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman (March 9, 1930 – June 11, 2015) was an American jazz saxophonist, trumpeter, violinist, and composer. He is best known as a principal founder of the free jazz genre, a term derived from his 1960 album '' Free Ja ...

Glen Matlock Glen Matlock (born 27 August 1956) is an English musician, best known for being the bass guitarist in the original line-up of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols. He is credited as a songwriter on 10 of the 12 songs on the Sex Pistols' only offic ...

Tommy Ramone Thomas Erdelyi (born Tamás Erdélyi, ; January 29, 1949 – July 11, 2014), known professionally as Tommy Ramone, was an American musician. He was the drummer for the influential punk rock band the Ramones from its debut in 1974 to 1978, ...

Lala Brooks ''LaLa'' is a monthly Japanese manga magazine published by Hakusensha on the 24th of each month. The magazine's bonus contents are usually calendars for New Year issues, drama CDs, and so on. In a 2006 survey conducted by Oricon, Japanese girls ...

May Pang May Fung Yee Pang (born October 24, 1950) is an American former music executive. She worked for John Lennon and Yoko Ono as a personal assistant and production coordinator. When Lennon and Ono separated in 1973, Pang and Lennon began a relatio ...

Michel Gondry Michel Gondry (; born 8 May 1963) is a French filmmaker and producer noted for his inventive visual style and distinctive manipulation of mise en scène. Along with Charlie Kaufman, he won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay as one o ...

, Tony Middleton,

Mark Bego Mark Joseph Bego (born September 23, 1952, in Pontiac, Michigan) is an author known for his biographies on the rock & roll and show business genres. Bego has written 59 books, two of which have gone on to become ''New York Times'' Best Sellers. ...

, Randy Jones (of the Village People),

Taylor Mead Taylor Mead (December 31, 1924 – May 8, 2013) was an American writer, actor and performer. Mead appeared in several of Andy Warhol's underground films filmed at Warhol's Factory, including ''Tarzan and Jane Regained... Sort of'' (1963) and '' T ...

Sylvia Miles Sylvia Miles (née Scheinwald; September 9, 1924 – June 12, 2019) was an American actress. She was twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performances in ''Midnight Cowboy'' (1969) and '' Farewell, My Lovel ...

, Ron Saint-Germain,

Gary Indiana Gary Hoisington (July 16, 1950 – October 23, 2024), known as Gary Indiana, was an American writer, actor, artist, and cultural critic. He served as the art critic for the ''Village Voice'' weekly newspaper from 1985 to 1988. Indiana is best k ...

Nicole Eisenman Nicole Eisenman (born 1965) is a French-born American artist known for her oil paintings and sculptures. She has been awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship (1996), the Carnegie Prize (2013), and has thrice been included in the Whitney Biennial (1995, ...

, Walter Robinson, Lee Klein, and

Victor Bockris Victor Bockris (born 1949) is an English-born, U.S.-based author, primarily of biographies of artists, writers, and musicians. He has written about Lou Reed (and The Velvet Underground), Andy Warhol, Keith Richards, William S. Burroughs, Terr ...

. The Kostabi Show has also featured guest musical performances by Ornette Coleman, Glen Matlock, Uncle Monk, Randy Jones, Derek Storm, Tony Middleton,

The Willowz The Willowz are an American garage punk rock band from Anaheim, California. The band was formed in 2002 when Richie James Follin (guitar and lead vocals) and Jessica Reynoza (bass and vocals) were both 18 years old and attending the same coll ...

The She Wolves ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' ...

and Glint. From Lisa Paul Streitfeld's review in NY Arts of

Thomas McEvilley Thomas McEvilley (; July 13, 1939 – March 2, 2013) was an American art critic, poet, novelist, and scholar. He was a Distinguished Lecturer in Art History at Rice UniversityThomas McEvilley, G. Roger Denson (1996), ''Capacity: : History, t ...

's new book: The Triumph of Anti-Art: Conceptual and Performance Art in the Formation of Postmodernism: "...Mark Kostabi's cynical conceptual art performance piece on his Manhattan cable television show where he invites critics to title his non-art objects (which proclaim their sole importance in not being painted by the artist). Those who once had a crucial role as adversary are now participants in the celebrity-obsessed shadow that has swallowed up

authenticity in art Authenticity in art is manifested in the different ways that a work of art, or an artistic performance, can be considered authentic. The initial distinction is between ''nominal authenticity'' and ''expressive authenticity''. In the first sense ...

. Kostabi has taken out a full-page ad in Art Forum as proof of this public triumph of the inauthentic. Is this public undermining of the critical apparatus the logical conclusion of Anti-Art?"

External links

The Kostabi Show Archives
��Online QuickTime files of the game show for viewing.
Mark Kostabi
��Mark Kostabi's web site. American game shows {{US-game-show-stub