are Europeans better than Americans at "getting" art?
Thursday, May 24, 2012 at 10:13AM 
Cheese ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Welcome ~ Bainbridge, NY • click to embiggen
Brew Pub Window ~ Binghamton, NY • click to embiggenDuring my recent wanderings around NY's southern tier, I had the opportunity to show my kitchen life book* to a number of complete strangers. One of those strangers was a person, Hans, from Switzerland (now a US citizen) with whom the wife and I shared breakfast at the B&B at which we were staying. The others were pure-bred Americans.
Hans, about halfway through looking at the kitchen life book, commented that the "arrangement" of colors, shapes, and light and shadow created an entirely different viewing experience of looking at the pictures that was independent of the depicted referents in those pictures, whereas a pure-bred American, our hostess at the B&B, was a woman whose expressed reaction to the pictures was that she could "identify", so she said with a smile on her face, with the depicted scenes / referents in those pictures. Suffice it to state, each viewer had different experience of viewing and reading the pictures.
It should come as no surprise to those who have read some of my recent entries or followed The Landscapist for any length of time, that I believe that Hans had a richer viewing experience than that of our B&B hostess.
CAVEAT: lest anyone get their knickers in a twist, re: me and my high horse, I wrote that Hans had a richer viewing experience - I did not write (or imply) that he had a better viewing experience. Without a doubt, there is a difference between the two viewing experiences but each experience and what was taken away from them was absolutely correct and proper for each individual.
That said, from my picture making POV, Hans "got" much more of what I was/am trying to capture and express in my kitchen life pictures - or, for that matter, any of my pictures - than did the pure-bred American. So, for me and my picture making intentions, Hans' expressed reaction, as far as it went, was much better or more complete than the pure-bred American's expressed reaction, as far as it went.
Now, getting back to the question at hand, I am not about to draw a hard and fast conclusion from a sample of 2 but ....
... my son, The Cinemascapist, also has some experience in this regard - while I don't have any exact figures, I would estimate / guess that the majority, by a wide margin, of his print sales have been to Europeans. In addition to that fact, his work has been written about (and lauded) in a host of European and international publications as opposed to in the US. And, his work has been accepted into a host of European photo competitions / festivals, many more than here in the US.
Does any of this mean that Europeans are better at getting Art/art? Maybe I should amend the question to read, are average Europeans better that average Americans at getting Art/art? While I am certain there are Art/art "experts" in any culture but there is some evidence that, taken on the whole, some cultures seemed to be more attuned to nuance and depth in Art/art than are others.
Any thoughts on the subject? And, BTW, I have posted 3 wide-ranging pictures, genre wise, for your viewing and reading consideration. Comments would be greatly appreciated.
*Recently, without knowing what I was getting into and in response to an email discount offering, I made a photo book using AdoramaPix's photo book making service.
After following my normal photo book making procedure of creating all my pages in Photoshop (to include text/typography) and then placing them on blank pages on a photo book making service site, it was not until I had reached the "Place Your Order" section of the site that I realized that I was making a "true" photo book. That is to say, a photo book comprised of actual photo prints as opposed to one made on a printing press. At that point I was hesitant to hit the "Place Your Order" button for a number of reasons but, throwing caution to the winds, I did so nevertheless.
Upon receipt of the 10×10 inch book, I was very pleased with the result. In fact, I was absolutely delighted with the result - the pictures were printed on a very nice heavy-weight luster photo paper. The color, saturation, and tonal values were spot on the money (be certain to disable their "Photo Correction" feature), almost indistinguishable from the prints I make at home on my hopped-up Epson Ultrachrome ink wide-format printer. And, all the pages were of the "lay flat" variety.
Quite impressive and highly recommended, to say the least. I will be making more "true" photo books at AdoramaPix.
Reader Comments (9)
The form, composition and color of "Cheese" and "Welcome" appeal to me. The balance and design is quite engaging.
However, "Brew Pub Window" is my favorite. The tone and composition are spot on: but, it is the human element and it`s implied story line that make it special for me. Maybe not everyone would "get" the design based "Cheese" and "Welcome". The design based abstraction is not everyone`s cup of tea.
"Brew Pub Window" engags a broader base encompassing design and recognizable human interaction.
Does that say Europeans are "better" than Asians or South Americans or Africans? I'd ask instead, are humans outside of North Americans better at getting art?
Although some may say the rest of the world is losing a piece of their rich, artistic and historic culture each day to American consumerism and branding, I'd still put it down to the fact that we (and the Canucks) are simply too young to compete with the thousands of years of culture (rich culture = greater understanding of art in my opinion) that the rest of the world has.
I did an Adoramapix book a couple of years ago and like you, I was very impressed with the photographic reproduction. However the quality of the paper/pages left me cold. You can read my review here: http://redskiesatnight.com/2010/04/28/adoramapix-photo-books-a-review/
It links to a couple of images where I scanned the pages and examined them at 100% to understand the image quality difference I was seeing visually.
The 3 pictures are quite nice in color, composition, and dynamic range.
It is a bit strange to think of Americans, or "North American outsiders" as not having a "rich cultural outlook" because we are too "young". Most all of us can trace our experience back to Europe (or some other culture). We did not spontaneously appear here in America.
Of course this does not help explain the difference if there is one. But I imagine culture must play a part.
@ John... "We did not spontaneously appear here in America."... We, as a people, did not spontaneously appear, but our culture did. I can trace my family back to Europe as well, but I don't have a clue about their culture and I don't like frogs legs. I am 100% americanized.
The question to me is, Does being "americanized" mean that we (or most of us) are less informed and less appreciative of art than other cultures? and on a whole I would say yes. For example, even in a poorer neighborhood of a different country you can find arts, whether it's in making their own unique foods, clothing, pottery, etc...They still have an understanding of and acknowledge the need for arts/culture. Can we really say the same goes for the poorer neighborhoods of the U.S.?
Enjoyed all three images (the second is perhaps a bit twee).
The third image is a knock-out: a great mix of design, low-light, street style, layers of interior / exterior and of course the guy looking at the couple (?) on the inside. There's a story and a mystery.
As for the Americans vs the Europeans, I'd say you can lump most of my fellow Australians in with the Americans. Both groups have a very consumer driven society and have been "trained" to lap up simple to-the-point advertising images. IMO.
But it's a question of exposure. If people get to see more Art orientated images (not hyper-saturated and stylised kitsch) then they are more likely to warm to a less obvious type of image.
did you ever consider maybe light and composition distract from the rich viewing experience, which focuses on who should be cleaning that kitchen mess?
I think there is probably a huge gender divide. men look at the photos, and see a blank space (because they are able to ignore dirty dishes to an amazing degree)...
Mark these three images are great, when I said your subject matter has changed, it has.
Mark, I'd include the everyday cultural setup in this equation: For many of us Europeans, American artwork often has more newsworthiness, freshness, different perspective than what we get presentend from this continent's artist, and it might well be similar the other way round. I have often tried to find out what draws me to American photography - there is something, but I still can't name it.