A new display in the Maxwell Music Library highlights a recent study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, “From Van Gogh to Lady Gaga: Artist Eccentricity Increases Perceived Artistic Skill and Art Appreciation.”
article abstract:
We examined the impact of eccentricity on the evaluation of artistic skills and the quality of artworks. Based on the notion that artists are typically perceived as eccentric, creative and skilled, we tested the hypothesis that eccentricity increases perceptions of artistic quality. In Study 1, Van Gogh’s Sunflowers painting was evaluated more positively when he was said to have cut off his left ear lobe than when this information was not presented. In Study 2, participants liked art more when the artist was eccentric. In Study 3, the evaluation of fictitious art increased because of the artist’s eccentric appearance. Study 4 established that the eccentricity effect was specific to unconventional as opposed to conventional art. In Study 5, Lady Gaga’s music was more appreciated when she was displayed as highly eccentric; however, the eccentricity effect emerged only when the display seemed authentic. These novel findings indicate that art evaluations are partly rooted in perceptions of artists’ eccentricity and evidence the importance of perceived authenticity and skills for these attributions. (Authors: Wijnand Adriaan Pieter Van Tilburg, School of Psychology, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK, and Eric Raymond Igou, University of Limerick, Castletroy, Ireland. European Journal of Social Psychology, 2014, volume 44, issue 2, pages 93-103. )
A copy of the study is included in the display as well as the following library resources:
- The Man Who Sold the World: David Bowie and the 1970s
- Michael Jackson: The Magic and the Madness
- Greatest Kiss [sound recording]
- She Can’t Stop – Miley Cyrus: The Biography [eBook]
- The Performing Style of Alexander Scriabin
- Madonna: Biography of the World’s Greatest Pop Singer
- Feedback: The Who and Their Generation
- Sun-Ra: Traveling the Spaceways: The Astro Black and Other Solar Myths
- The Very Best of “Little Richard” [sound recording]
- Frank Zappa [eBook]
- Behind the Candelabra: My Life With Liberace
- Sounding Like a No-No?: Queer Sounds and Eccentric Acts in the Post-Soul Era [eBook]
Read the study and let us know if you agree with the authors’ conclusions.
