Arts & Culture Abstract art vs a child's painting

milquetoast · Mar 15, 2011

I'm actually not that convinced the results are as meaningful as the researchers think. I wouldn't be surprised if the perceived quality is largely a reflection of the neater and refined the brush strokes in the artist's work.

To find out, Hawley-Dolan and Winner asked 32 art students and 40 psychology students to compare pairs of paintings. One piece of each pair was the work of a recognised artist, such as Kline, Rothko, Cy Twombly, Gillian Ayre, and more. The other came from the oeuvre of lesser-known painters, including preschool children, elephants, chimps, gorillas and monkeys. The paintings were matched according to colour, line quality, brushstroke and medium; the students had to say which they preferred and which was better.

Both groups of students preferred the professional pieces to the amateur ones, and judged them to be superior. Even the psychology students, who had no background in art education, felt the same way, although as you might expect, their preference for the professional works was slightly weaker.

Throughout the experiments, the students typically picked the professional pieces between 60% and 70% of the time. These aren’t overwhelming majorities, but they were statistically significant. On average, a child could not “paint that”, even if first glances might suggest otherwise. Nor are the qualities of the abstract art only visible to people steeped in the art world – even untrained people responded to the paintings in some way.

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Klues · Mar 28, 2011

huh... Before I read which was which, I thought the one on the right was by the 4 year old. It seems somehow less significant. Cool study

Matt · May 24, 2011

60-70% of the time people could tell the difference? Huh. Know what percentage of people can tell the difference between a kid's work and, let's say, Salvador Dali? You know, real art? 100%. Same with Van Gogh. And Da Vinci. Or really, any other person with artistic talent. You wouldn't bang randomly on a piano and call it music. Why is art held to such a lower standard?

604YVR · May 26, 2011

I like the kid's painting.

6u-huo.l.uV · May 29, 2011

"ram dam twelve
sizzle mop
crunch down
safety net
hot, hot, hot void"

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Arts & Culture Abstract art vs a child's painting

milquetoast Senior Member

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