Artists Who Need Reality TV Shows

Pairing art with reality TV might be the epitome of mixing high and low culture, but sometimes such unexpected mash-ups really make for an excellent result. And it's impossible to deny that some of the most famous people in the art world have made a name for themselves because of their kooky personalities. In this way, they're not so different from their reality star counterparts. From Salvador Dali to Jeff Koons, there's a place on trashy television for all your favorite artists. Find out who belongs on what show with our list of Artists Who Need Reality TV Shows.

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It's no secret that Koons rakes in big money with his creations. Vulture called him the most successful American artist since Andy Warhol, yet the art world seems out to get him. We'd like to put his business skills to the test on The Apprentice. It would be a toss-up who audiences would love to hate more—Koons or Donald Trump's toupee.

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Jay-Z spotlights Picasso on his brand new album, dedicating an entire track to the Cubist painter with the lyrics, "I'm the modern day Pablo Picasso, baby." As it turns out, Picasso had it all—talent, fame, money, and a whole lot of women who lusted after him.

First, there was Fernande Olivier, his mistress who was often the subject of his earlier paintings. Then Picasso left Olivier for a new muse, Marcelle Humbert. After she died, he married and had a son with ballerina Olga Khokhlova. His marriage, however, didn't stop him from beginning an affair with a 17-year-old girl, who ended up hanging herself after Picasso himself passed away. He eventually married again, after a few more brief flings.

Celebrity, complicated love triangles, and totally twisted affiars? Sounds like Picasso could've been the next Bret Michaels on Rock of Love.

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As John Lennon's number one girl back in the day, Yoko Ono definitely knows a thing or two about how to make it as a band in America (or break it up, depending on who you ask). Ono rolled with The Beatles in the band's heyday. Maybe if she had her hand in the wannabe bands on Making the Band, Danity Kane might have lasted longer.

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While the criminals on America's Most Wanted are known for grisly cold case crimes, Banksy still fits the profile of unknown delinquent, and he's definitely a wanted man—if only for his popular art. The street artist has managed to veil his identity from authorities for years, leaving his trademark graffiti on walls across the world. Like the criminals on AMW, he probably would only appear on the show if his identity were protected with a blurred-out face and distorted voice.

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Photographer Terry Richardson is always surrounded by beautiful models and actresses who stop by his studio for sexy shoots. We can imagine him on The Bachelor surrounded by a plethora of pretty girls willing to do anything to get in front of his lens. Unfortunately, he has been known to take his model-artist relationship a little too far.

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Though it's not her house per se, Yayoi Kusama has been living in the Seiwa Hospital for the Mentally Ill since 1973. And we are willing to bet that if we aired her on an episode of Room Raiders, we'd find every surface of her household covered in multi-hued polka dots just like her works.

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Anyone who saw McCarthy's WS at the Park Avenue Armory knows that his work is not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach. The dinner spectacle served up by McCarthy looked like a feast fit for Fear Factor. His older works are no different with feces and scrotum often the main focus. McCarthy could make even the strongest Fear Factor contestants queasy.

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Remember the brief run of My Life as Liz, a story centering on Liz, an aspiring artist who moves across the country from a little town in Texas to the Brooklyn to chase her dreams? Yeah, that was a short-lived program. If Keith Haring were still alive, a similar show focusing on the New York City artist raised in Kutztown, PA would undoubtedly attract many viewers.

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One of the most financially successful artists right now, Damien Hirst still doesn't have the respect of many in the art world. Last year, Guardian critic Jonathan Jones called him "a national disgrace, a living example that talent is nothing and money is king." And that's one of the nicer stabs at Hirst. He has been blasted by animal rights groups for killing 9,000 butterflies in the name of art and for relying on apprentices to complete his works. Although he definitely knows how to sell art, we could see him on MADE. His episode would feature making him into a beloved artist that people actually like.

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Although MSNBC's reality show Lockup takes viewers through some of the most notorious penitentiaries in America, we're far more interested in the secret prison in China where Ai Weiwei spent 81 days locked-up. Recall that the politically active Chinese artist was arrested back in 2011 for alleged economic crimes. In any case, only Ai Weiwei himself knows exactly what went down in that prison, but the artist has said that his detention by the Chinese government was like being in hell.

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There's no doubt about it. Frida Kahlo was a bad bitch who didn't care about social conventions. She wasn't afraid to shock the world with her controversial paintings like Henry Ford Hospital, which depicted herself nude, atop a hospital bed beside a fetus and a snail. Like many of the women on The Bad Girls Club, the liberal and experimental Kahlo was likely no stranger to love affairs or one-night stands. We wonder if Diego Rivera would agree.

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Dali's strange canvases, filled with dark themes and nighmarish images are enough insight into his mind to to know that he's a personality we would never bore of watching. Of course the king of Surrealism would entertain us on any TV show, but what better place for the Spanish painter than The Surreal Life? Although Dali is much more well-known that any fame-mongerers who have showed up on the Surreal Life, his quirky mustache would fit right in.

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We've all heard the story of a lovesick Vincent van Gogh slicing off his ear for a girl (well, prostitute). Whether that account is true or not, we may never know, but it would be pretty interesting (and depressing) to watch a show on van Gogh's absinthe-fueled life.

Perhaps the most famous case of the tortured artist, van Gogh never quite fit in anywhere. The painter suffered from delusions and hallucinations, eventually committing himself to a mental institution. It wasn't until after he shot and killed himself that the painter launched into fame. Sounds to us like, van Gogh's story would have made a great episode on Intervention.

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Leonardo da Vinci did it all. He was a painter, sculptor, engineer, mathematician, inventor, anatomist, and writer, among other professions. As a true Renaissance man, surely it would be hilarious to pit da Vinci against some of the other brightest minds in the country on a show like the Discovery Channel's Big Brain Theory: Pure Genius. No one would be able to top the genius of all geniuses.

Also, Da Vinci wrote all his notes backwards, presumably to conceal their meanings. Was he a genius or mad man? To this day, historians still only know very little about him. Perhaps if someone could have made a reality show on the artist, we'd be able to pick apart his brain and dive into the mysterious mastermind that is Leonardo da Vinci. We can only dream.

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Though the world knows him as the father of Pop art, there's more to the flamboyant Andy Warhol than his iconic renderings of Campbell's soup cans and Marilyn Monroe. In fact, he was quite the party boy.

After making it as an artist in New York, Warhol met and befriended many famous artists and celebrities, becoming a sort of socialite himself. His studio "The Factory" became a hangout spot and partying venue for him and many freethinking friends like Edie Sedgwick, Truman Capote, and The Velvet Underground, not unlike the party houses of The Real World. We imagine Warhol probably got as sloppy as our favorite Real World friends after a few drinks.

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