Painting by numbers

de Vitaly Komar, JoAnn Wypijewski

Beginning on December 10, 1993, trained professionals, working from a central, monitored location in Indiana on behalf of the Russian conceptual art team of Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid, telephoned Americans to find out what they want in art--fine art, specifically painting. For eleven days the survey continued, as people throughout the forty-eight contiguous states pondered: soft curves or sharp angles? brushstrokes or smooth surfaces? "realistic-looking" or "different looking"? serious or festive? ... What is beauty? Who defines it? And why is high art so remote from most people? The Russian emigre art team of Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid takes on not only the billion-dollar American art industry but also capitalism's most venerated tool: the market research poll. With the help of a professional polling firm, they discovered that what Americans want in art, regardless of class, race, or gender, is exactly what the art world disdains - a tranquil, realistic blue landscape. Painting by Numbers includes the original questionnaire and reproductions of the "most wanted" and "most unwanted" paintings the artists made based on American survey results and on polls they exported to nine other countries - including Russia, China, France, and Kenya - representing almost one-third of the world's population. Essays by JoAnn Wypijewski and noted art critic Arthur Danto, as well as an interview with the artists, explore the crisis of modernism, the cultural meaning of polls, the significance of landscape, and the commodification of just about everything.