Art quotes

"For the last 20 year period I've been working with ideas conceived as a child." -Red Grooms

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

The Perfect Painting - What Do You Think?

What makes the perfect painting?  Is it a landscape with trees and lakes, perhaps with a sailboat gently bobbing on the blue lake? In 1993, the People’s Choice project by Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid described in The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution (Dennis  Dutton ) studied the artistic preference of folks in ten countries. In the study they want to town hall meeting to hear just what makes the perfect landscape. A worldwide poll conducted by various public opinion firms of simple artistic preference questions covered close to two billion people’s opinion.
Take a moment and think what you feel would make the perfect painting.
What did you picture? Did you have a blue sky, trees, water?  If you did you would be on track with the findings of the research.  Universally the ideal painting was a landscape with water, people and animals. The ideal color almost exclusively is blue. The researchers even noted a link back to our early ancestors who were looking for a cozy safe place to live. We seem to carry this image deep in our brain that comes out when we look for that perfect landscape.
A bitter side note… the esteemed researchers warned that the most disliked paintings described in the research were abstract designs. Sadly, the product of my new artistic excitement – brilliant abstracts,  will never be accepted by the masses. Fortunately, I still also love the dunes and forests, close enough to the perfect landscape. I think times are changing and the viewers and supporters of modern art, in these very fascinating art times, have already proven the People’s Choice project prediction regarding abstracts as weak if not faulty.
So keep looking at the beauty and changing earth we call home and find your perfect landscape, then squint at that sunset and just maybe you can make your own abstract. 

 This piece called Little Lake, or

 Spontaneous Bloom? What's your choice?
Happy looking, Joel

  

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