The impact of reading or listening to a contextual information relating to contemporary paintings on the evaluation by non-experts in the field of art

Abstract

The experiment concerned the impact of the catalogue description, experienced in various ways (reading a text or listening to audio material before seeing a picture; listening to audio material whilst looking at the picture; one group was devoid of any context information), on evaluation of the 21st century abstract and figurative paintings. The experiment was based on the reactions of laymen who were presented with copies of the paintings and provided with their catalogue descriptions. The paintings were evaluated from the perspective of form, content and axiology. The experiment indicated that the way of delivering of context material influenced the viewers’ perception of the paintings and had a clear impact on the positive reaction, as well as helped to understand the symbolic meaning of the viewed piece of art. Moreover, differences in evaluation of abstract and figurative paintings were conspicuous. The overall results clearly indicate that laymen tend to appreciate contemporary figurative paintings more than abstract ones, and a positive evaluation is aided by audio context presented at the time of viewing the picture.