David Beckham
An Artfinder survey revealed that one third of 16-24 year olds believe Rory Bremner, Alistair McGowan and John Culshaw to be more associated with the arts than Monet or Van Gogh. The survey also found that women spend more time on choosing an outfit for a family gathering than they do choosing art for their own homes. More people in Britain own ubiquitous prints than they do unique pieces. Bristol however is the exception as half of its residents have a unique piece and Belfast has next to none. It also found that one in ten 16-24 years olds think that ‘al dente’ is a term for art.
London, April 2nd 2013: Over one third of 16-24 year-olds in the UK (36%) don’t know who Renoir is, instead thinking he is one of David Beckham’s team-mates at Paris Saint-Germain (13%), the French Prime Minister (6%), last year’s Eurovision winner (5%) or simply not knowing (12%), according to a new study.
The research, by online art retailer Artfinder, reveals as a nation, our art knowledge is not up to scratch. Nearly one in ten (8%) of the same age group associate the common cooking term ‘al dente’ with art, and link ‘impressionism’ with the likes of comedians Rory Bremner (19%), Alistair McGowan (10%) and Jon Culshaw (6%) – rather than Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh.
The study also shows women typically spend more time choosing what to wear to a family event (16%) than they do deciding what art to display in their homes (13%).
Authentic art highly investable and despite speculation, more accessible and affordable than people think. More Brits, however, purchase mass produced prints from high-street stores (41%) rather than opting for a one-of-a-kind piece (33%).
In Banksy’s hometown of Bristol, however, this is not the case, as it leads the way as the artiest city in the UK, with close to half of its population (47%) owning authentic art. In contrast, 81% of residents in Belfast don’t own any authentic art at all.
Jonas Almgren, CEO of Artfinder, said: “While we’d love the UK population to be as informed about the art world as possible, you don’t have to know all about the historic greats to appreciate good art. It’s never been more true to say that there is art out there for all tastes and budgets, whether people have been inspired by the latest David Bowie exhibition for example, or if they want to invest in a piece that may reap rewards for them in the future.”
Artfinder offers people advice on the latest artists to invest in, from as little as £25.