I don't know much about art...and vice versa

So here’s the question I asked 50 friends and acquaintances: if you could own an original work of art by any artist (living or dead), who would it be?

At first I was interested in numbers, that is, how many votes for Monet, how many for Da Vinci; etc. And then it dawned on me that one simple response, if answered honestly, can give some insight into a respondents persona which is, of course, influenced by a whole phalanx of things: upbringing (familial attention); education (or lack of it); an interest in art as a whole and what a persons values are; be they inwardly selfish, outwardly financial, or even whimsical.
Then assumptions can be made, perhaps wrong but also, perhaps, logically right. It’s a different take on “you are what you eat,” addressed as, “you are what’s in your art.”

I must say I was quite surprised with some of the choices. First of all, I knew going in that, if taken seriously, it’s a difficult question. Coming up with just one artist is hard because people like, and can appreciate, a lot of different kinds of (and schools of) art. If people choose an artist totally influenced by value, as opposed to what one wants to live with, it also gives some insight into that person’s priorities. I was hoping everyone would think about what they would hang in a prime location on their living room wall; not what they would put in a bank vault for future maximum resale; but I deliberately did not include that in the question, letting the respondent take that aspect of owning art into consideration. There is, of course, some overlap there. Even though you could live a long, cushy life by selling your Van Gogh; it would be nice to think he or she is the artist whose work you most wanted to live with on a daily basis.

There were quite a few obvious old master choices with Da Vinci and Michelangelo leading that pack, with a couple of Raphael’s and Caravaggio’s making an appearance. The lion’s share of the votes, however, went to the Impressionists, with Monet, Van Gogh, Renoir and Seurat in descending order. Next up was the more modern crowd with the usual suspects: Picasso, Turner, Chagall, and Matisse for instance, followed by the more contemporary schools with Dali, Botero, Kahlo, Rothko, DeKooning, Warhol, Lichtenstein, Mapplethorpe and Haring making the cut.

I loved the variety of choices and exalt, yes exalt, in the quality of the artists chosen, but my faith in humanity, and some of my friends, was shattered by other, I guess inevitable, choices. I can certainly not quibble with Innes and Wyeth and Rockwell but then there were votes for Steven Power, Christian Riese Lassen, Frank Frazetta and Thomas Kinkade. If you don’t know their work it only takes a little time on Google to refresh your memory and realize you actually do know it. I vowed at the start I would not question (or judge) anyone’s choice but it was difficult to not say to these people, in a kindly, avuncular tone, “Wouldn’t you prefer a nice mid-sized Vermeer hanging over your mantel instead?”

But I quibble; at least they cared enough to have an answer. Too many people had no answer at all: “I guess I’m not really into art. I don’t have anything at all on my walls” and, “I guess I should have paid more attention in art appreciation class,” and the time honored answer, “Is this a trick question?” However, even these comments have value and one can draw conclusions from them (including a couple of wise-ass suggestions) as well as those who had an unequivocal answer. To be totally up-front, although I have quite a bit of art on my walls, I have a mirror in a “Chippendale-style” frame hanging over my own mantel. What does that tell you?