Russian conceptual artist Vitaly Komar is one of the founders of the Sots Art movement (Soviet Pop/Conceptual Art). But he may be best known for his collaborations with fellow artist Alexander Melamid, the most famous of which was their Most Wanted Paintings series. The paintings in this series were the result of professional market research—the artists polled citizens around the world to uncover their aesthetic likes and dislikes, then produced paintings based on the tabulated data.

For example, when it comes to the physical size of their paintings, Americans prefer:

dishwasher size: 67%
full-size refrigerator: 17%
full wall: 11%
19-inch television: 69%
a magazine: 24%
paperback book: 40%

Above is the result of that data along with the rest of the American survey results: a traditional, dishwasher-sized landscape painting featuring George Washington, frolicking deer, a large tree and a grand lake.

The funny thing is, paintings based on the survey results from other countries look much the same. Russians preferred the figure of Jesus over George Washington and bears rather than deer, but otherwise there are no major differences.

Komar will be here this Sunday as part of our Russian Sundays series for what promises to be a fascinating afternoon. Stop by at 4pm.

[Paradoxes of Collaborations in Art with Vitaly Komar: 01/14/07]