Som läsare av denna blogg känner jag till är jag svag för abstrakt konst. Ibland hävdas, av personer som inte delar min uppskattning av denna typ av konst, att ”ett barn kunde ha målat det där”. Stämmer det? Frågan har nu undersökts vetenskapligt, vilket rapporteras i artikeln ”Seeing the Mind Behind the Art: People Can Distinguish Abstract Expressionist Paintings From Highly Similar Paintings by Children, Chimps, Monkeys, and Elephants”, publicerad i Psychological Science:

To test whether people really conflate paintings by professionals with paintings by children and animals, we showed art and nonart students paired images, one by an abstract expressionist and one by a child or animal, and asked which they liked more and which they judged as better. The first set of pairs was presented without labels; the second set had labels (e.g., “artist,” “child”) that were either correct or reversed. Participants preferred professional paintings and judged them as better than the nonprofessional paintings even when the labels were reversed. Art students preferred professional works more often than did nonart students, but the two groups’ judgments did not differ.

Intressant, förvisso, men min egen uppfattning är att det är helt ointressant om en vuxen, ett barn eller en elefant har målat en tavla, så länge jag tycker om den.