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To mark the second annual Lexmark European Art Prize, Europe’s only pan European painting prize, Lexmark UK has commissioned a report to reveal the artistic brain of the country’s workforce.

Results in brief:

• Accountants are the UK’s most artistic profession
• Retail assistants are the UK’s least artistically inclined
• Knowledge of Brit-art is virtually non-existent with 83% of all surveyed getting the questions wrong
• Builders know more about modern art than any other profession - 30% answered all the questions correctly
• Healthcare workers were the UK’s 3rd most artistic profession

Construction workers are tops for contemporary but its Accountants who paint by numbers

While builders know more about modern art than any other profession questioned, overall accountants are the UK’s most artistic profession.  Accountants knew their Mona Lisa from their Michelangelo, while retail assistants were Britain’s least artistic profession, with over a third not able to answer any of the questions.

Britain’s brickies came out on top in the modern art stakes with over three quarters identifying Warhol’s Campbell’s soup cans, compared to 46% of healthcare workers and 36% of retail assistants.  Nearly two thirds of builders correctly categorised Jackson Pollock as an Abstract Impressionist – more than any other profession (37% IT managers and 31% of accountants).

However, a massive 84% of accountants correctly answered that Van Gogh painted the Sunflowers and three quarters could identify Henry Moore as a sculptor.  47% of accountants knew that Munch painted the Scream; while over a fifth of healthcare workers thought it was Picasso, one third of retail assistants did not have a clue.

IT-Arty
IT professionals - stereotyped as happier with a soldering iron than a paintbrush - did especially well.  IT was the top profession in stating Picasso’s nationality as Spanish (59%) and identifying Leonardo da Vinci as the painter of the Mona Lisa (91%). Over two thirds of all research respondents knew that Michelangelo was a Renaissance painter and half knew Monet was an impressionist.  

Damien who?
However, the research highlighted the ignorance of homegrown talent.  Only 6% of retail workers, 7% of IT specialists and 9% of accountants could recognise Damien Hirst’s ‘1000 years’, currently on exhibition in the Saatchi gallery.  Despite the controversy of his alter ego “Claire” less than a third of all professions knew that Grayson Perry was this year’s winner of the Turner Prize.

In the overall battle of the sexes men came out on top.  Men from the professions questioned knew more about Renaissance art, Picasso and the painter of the Mona Lisa than their female counterparts. 
 
Confusion Consommé
4% of healthcare workers thought that Rory Bremner not Monet was an impressionist painter.  Pop Artist Andy Warhol caused much confusion as 17% of healthcare workers stated he painted Heinz soup cans and 4% of IT workers thought Covent Garden Soup Company containers made up one of the most famous works of the 20th Century.

How to enter the Lexmark European Art Prize (closing date 31March 2004)
All you need to do is log on to www.print-art.com and fill in the online entry form, attaching a high-resolution scan (minimum resolution of 300 dpi) of your painting. The closing date for all entries is midnight on 31st March 2004.  Please read all terms and conditions on the web site before entering.

The judging panel

• Brendan Neiland, Chairman of Judges and Keeper of the Royal Academy Schools
• Meredith Etherington-Smith, art collector and industry figure
• Christian Ward, Artist and winner of the 2003 Lexmark European Art Prize
• Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, President of the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy
• Antonello Cardone, Lexmark Vice President Consumer Printer Division & General Manager Europe
• Lorena Martinez, Art Critic and Independent Curator, Barcelona

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