Thanks to Bravo's "Work of Art," which airs for the umpteenth time tonight, America can watch artists hard at work on reality television each week, surrounded by figures like auctioneer Simon de Pury, New York magazine art critic Jerry Saltz, and China Chow, the daughter of art collectors Michael and Tina Chow. But while artists have rarely appeared on television before — Warhol's 1985 "Love Boat" appearance and the entire fun of Glenn O'Brien's "TV Party" aside — they have been using it as a medium for decades. Here are ten of ARTINFOs favorite instances.
 
10. Chris Burden, "The TV Commercials," 1973–1977

Who is that man sporting nothing but a Speedo, wiggling his way through a pile of glass on television? Why, it’s Chris Burden, starring in one of the four art ads he ran during the 1970s. In his own words: "During the early seventies I conceived a way to break the omnipotent stranglehold of the airwaves that broadcast television had. The solution was to simply purchase commercial advertising time and have the stations play my tapes along with their other commercials." Needless to say, they didn't make viewers want to buy anything — especially not a Speedo.

9. Aldo Tambellini, "Black TV," 1964-1968

The New York-born artist spent five years collecting raw television footage and editing it into a schizophrenic pastiche of images from the medium. Said Tambellini, "Black TV is about the future, the contemporary American, the media, the injustice, the witnessing of events, and the expansion of the senses. The act of communication and the experience is the essential."

8. Multiple artists, "The Medium Is the Medium," 1969

Boston television WGBH-TV graciously invited artists Aldo Tambellini, Thomas Tadlock, Allan Kaprow, James Seawright, Otto Piene, and Nam June Paik to work with television technicians for a special program that was broadcast to the area. Paik’s involved hippies, a topless dancer, and heavy distortion, while Peine showed a woman floating through fields of feedback. Sadly, the experiment was not repeated.

7. Gerry Schum, "Land Art," 1969

"One of our ideas is communication of art instead of possession of art objects," German artist Gerry Schum wrote of his Cologne-based TV Gallery, an ephemeral art exhibition space that existed only in the form of television broadcasts. In his first exhibition, shown on German television on April 15, he included films by Robert Smithson and Richard Long, along with “Hole in the Sea,” a video by Barry Flanagan (of bunny-sculpture fame), which showed just that.

6. Merce Cunningham, "Event for Television," 1977

Cunningham began making "video-dances" using television production studios in 1975, but he outdid himself in 1977 with a 56-minute program commissioned for PBS that included music by composers John Cage and David Tudor, with set design by none other than Brazilian art impresario Ernesto Neto.

5. Stan Douglas, "Television Spots," 1987-88, and "Monodramas," 1991

Canadian artist Stan Douglas filmed a series of 12 short, boring clips that were shown during broadcasts in Ottawa and Saskatoon. Later, he produced slightly longer "Monodrama," which contain slightly more action, like a near-collision between a school bus and an automobile. There is a serious "Twin Peaks" vibe in the air here.

4. Joseph Beuys, Nam June Paik, and Douglas Davis at Documenta 6, 1977

At the 1977 edition of the Kassel-based exhibition that is held every five years, organizers set up a live satellite telecast to beam performances by visiting artists to more than 25 countries. Davis performed a work called "The Last Nine Minutes," discussing the medium of television with television viewers through the television, while Beuys used his time to present a speech to the public on the topic of his "social sculpture."

3. Dara Birnbaum, "MTV Artbreak," 1987

The pioneering music-video network has been presented short art segments between shows for years, giving many cartoonists, filmmakers, and video artists their first chance to reach a mass audience. Video artist Dara Birnbaum’s project for the series took an ultra-brief look at the history the depiction of women in animation.

2. Keith Arnatt, "Self Burial," 1969

A series of photographs showing Welsh artist Arnatt disappearing into the ground were shown during a television newscast and the program following without any explanation. On the final night, Arnatt was interviewed about the piece. "It was originally made as a comment upon the notion of the 'disappearance of the art object,'" Arnatt said. "It seemed a logical corollary that the artist should also disappear."

1. Chris Burden, "TV Hijack," 1972

Back when he was doing his seminal performances, Burden was notorious for putting his own life in danger. For a January 14, 1972, piece he performed on live television, he decided to mix things up and threaten another person’s life on the air. Holding a knife to the throat of local broadcaster Phyllis Lutjeans, he informed the station he would cut her throat if they stopped broadcasting. "I told her that I had planned to make her perform obscene acts," he said later. "The station manager was irate."