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Art survey yields surprising results

American painters seem to love having historical figures like George Washington in their works. They also use wildlife as their inspirations, like deer gazing towards a crystal blue lake. Americans also really like trees in their paintings, lots of bushy trees.

That is, of course, according to "The People's Choice" exhibit.

Vtialy Komar and Alexander Melamid's exhibit, showing at the University of Arizona Museum of Art, exposes the most wanted and most unwanted paintings from 14 different countries.

As Russian immigrants, Komar and Melamid became fascinated with the opinion polls Americans seemed to rely on for gauging public interest.

Using their sense of humor and the opinion polls for inspiration, Komar and Melamid teamed up with a market-research firm to find out what exactly people like in art.

They worked with the firm to develop 100 questions about individuals (age, interests, spending habits, etc.) in the viewing audience and their likes in terms of paintings.

The results of the international survey - displayed in the "People's Choice" paintings - provoke questions concerning the actual definition of art and who determines its value.

Alisa Shorr, of the UA Museum of Art, said people may be surprised at the results created from their own choices.

"Here they give you what you want, but is this really what you want?" Shorr said.

The cross-cultural results revealed that blue is the preferred color and abstract art is the most disliked form of art - with the exception of Dutch people, who voted abstract art their favorite.

Peter Briggs, UA Museum of Art curator, compared Komar and Melamid to members of the Dada art movement, whose art chastised everything, but addressed serious questions at the same time.

The exhibit, along with the Most Wanted and Most Unwanted paintings from each country, displays numerous pie and bar graphs to remind the viewer of the origin and idea from which the show was developed.

The artists enclosed a table and shelf with books to encourage audience participation.

Shorr and Briggs rented the exhibit from the Independent Curators International, a nonprofit organization that specializes in putting contemporary shows together.

The show was chosen to spur a re-examination of people's opinions of art.

"We knew about Komar and Melamid and we haven't done any shows to undermine what people think is art or not art," Briggs said. "When we learned about this show, we started laughing, and that was it."

Briggs also mentioned the artists are now currently living in New York and are working in collaboration with animals that paint.

Komar and Melamid travel between their homes and India, where they are working with the region's elephants.

The UA Museum is planning to do a Tucson survey, which can be accessed on the Wildcat Online (http://wc.arizona.edu) or at the exhibit itself.

The results will be given to UA students in Alfred Quiroz's Beginning Painting class to create Tucson's Most Wanted and Most Unwanted paintings. The works will be unveiled at the UA Museum of Art on March 23, 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

This exhibit will run until April 2.