Italy's Most Wanted

There were a couple "most wanted" paintings that were especially interesting in comparison to those of other countries. personally, my tastes most paralleled those of the denizens of Holland, Germany, and Italy. This similarity is basically arbitrary and boils down to my preferences. It has nothing to do with Komar and Melamid's "scientific findings". It seems to me, however, that subject matter really matters very little to the most wanted painting. People seem to want images that are so bland they may as well not exist. I think Komar and Melamid might have done better to document the already existing works, and, more importantly, most popular artists, living or not living. The fact is that most people have no idea what they want from art. That's why they don't make it themselves. Artists decide what people will look at because they are driven at an intellectual and investigative level to create. When given the opportunity to think about what they want to look at, the non-artist general public chooses almost nothing. However, when they are given a range of images by the experts and professionals of the visual world--artists--they tend to choose and appreciate works that have more complexity than the "most wanted" paintings, even if they do consist of blue skies, blue water, funny animals, cute children, and George Washington. I think that the most important things about art are the artist, the art object, and the concept which was the impetus for the creation of the art object, in that order. Because I think this, Komar and Melamid's study seems almost pointless, as it involves none of the most important elements of creation. Or, if it does, they are sort of shadows or parodies or deformations of what they should be.