What Art do you like?

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Hi,

I'm a designer currently working with a new autism diagnostic centre in the UK. Together we're selecting artworks to make the centre a more pleasant environment, to help us select artworks it would be great to hear from you and learn about what subjects and styles of art you like and more importantly don't like.

Look forward to hearing from you!

At first I was a little leery at the idea, at Autistic friendly art...but it makes some sense. I'm an aspie artist who makes NT friendly art so why not give it a try.
I'm talking about decor and not critiquing styles so don't be offended fellow artists.

Likes
I prefer classical styled art, oil and acrylic paintings with complex imagery.
Scenes are more interesting than mere faces, and when landscapes are used they should not be empty land. (Lighthouse on a beach, Cabin on a mountain)
Classical scenes of hunting, fishing, farming, and traditional skills in use. Whaling scenes, while archaic are interesting.
I often like images with water as part of the image, it adds movement and life to many works.

Dislikes
Modern art, impressionistic or surrealistic Keep those in galleries where folks want to interpret art. They don't blend with other styles and bring the whole feel of the room as garish and ill proportioned.
Watercolors, as they often cover themes autistics don't relate to and lack the depth of color to serve as decor compared to other mediums..
Images of large groups doing things I don't relate with. You don't want art making autistics feel more excluded. Watercolors often do this as they are often done in urban settings.
Animals, (in decorator art, I love animals) as it often appears childish if they are the central theme. (A retriever on the hunt would be fine, no doggy portraits though.)
Fantasy art (for decor). Tends to be tacky, as does science-fiction art as decor.

Hates
Cheap mass produced factory art.

If your interested in looking at what I favorite on deviantArt it's at this LINK

I couldn't agree with AutisticMillionaire more... in fact, I barely have anything to add to that.
But still, here's what I like, personally:

Definitly look for pictures that have something interesting to offer, pictures you can look at for several minutes and still discover new details, not something you look at once and think "meh, kind of nice."
The pictures should be complex, but still clean, not chaotic.

Beautiful landscapes (nature is VERY important), fantasy creatures, reptiles and amphibians, fairytale style illustrations.

And - no aggressive mixtures of colours. I do like surrealistic art sometimes, but it's important for me that the colours harmonize, and for every bright colour, I need two toned-down ones.
I also generally prefer green, light blue, a tiny bit of warm purple and dark red over yellow and orange,
and dark scenes over too much white.

Giving a dA favourites link is not a bad idea, here's mine:
http://stormschild.deviantart.com/favourites/

EDIT: I drew a little palette of colours I generally seem to like in paintings. Not sure this helps, I hope so:
http://i.imgur.com/rwanIHJ.jpg

For the most part - the more toned down and relaxed it looks, the more suitable it will be for an Aspie-friendly environment. Nothing too bright, or "out there" as some people would call it.

I think it would be okay to add a few portraits along to the mix, but make sure they aren't facing directly out of their pictures. That can be... pretty creepy. Something undefined would be nice, like a person off in the background instead of being the main center of attention.

I like a lot of different things, but I'm a huge fan of the kinetic energy of comic book art.

For decorating an environment where you want to keep people calm and relaxed, though, I find pastoral scenes work best for me. Not only paintings with lots of greens, blues and earth tones, but pen and ink sketches with objects, barns, etc and lots of stark lines to study. Scenes you can get lost in while you're waiting.

I don't mind art that begs interpretation, but that excites the mind, rather than having any calming effect. If you have people in an environment where they may already feel anxious or agitated, I'm not sure visual puzzles or warmer colors are going to feel very soothing.

I know I am very unusual and don't represent any masses. Lots of people have opinions, and I have my own. I know my opinions are not popular at all.

LIKES: I tend to like realistically drawn art, with lots of detail, technical, etc. To me, the more exact the better. I like some classical art that is realistically drawn, some nature art, and realistic illustrations in nonfiction books like National Geographic or good quality history and science books. I also like diagrams in technical and repair manuals, if they are not hastily drawn. I also can like sci-fi or fantasy art, if it is drawn in a realistic manner, not too cheesy, and not distorted or very stylized. I am fascinated by architecture and machinery, and also by nature and animal and plant physiology, and geographic landscapes and features.

DISLIKES: I am not trying to be a jerk, but I am kind of opinionated in my own way. I am not as into undetailed, blurry, unrealistic or strongly stylized art. I am also not as into art that tries to use certain colors or objects to make impress emotional feelings or whatever. Also I am not as into cartoon styles and I get tired of the super popular overrated "manga" style because it is often very unrealistic, especially with the heads and eyes of characters. Those huge eyes can be creepy and unsightly to me. I have to force myself into a certain mindset to be able to enjoy cartoony art or distorted manga style art.

Like:

Baroque/Renaissance oil paintings, particularly landscapes
Impressionism

Dislike:

Weird modern stuff
Hyperrealism (photograph-like art)
Portraits


Here are some examples:

Things I like:

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/love ... llman.html

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... A16977.jpg

http://0.tqn.com/d/arthistory/1/0/x/r/m ... _09_02.jpg

Things I dislike:

http://kisexpressions.files.wordpress.c ... t-fish.jpg

http://slimber.com/gallery/images2/11/1 ... ck-dot.jpg

http://img1.etsystatic.com/006/0/656278 ... jpg?ref=l2

My taste in art tends to reflect my special interests in certain subject matter. If it has beautiful African ladies, dinosaurs or other prehistoric animals, warriors and architecture from ancient civilizations (esp. non-Western ones, and most of all Egyptian and other African), or tribal barbarians, I dig it. I am less picky about artistic style, but I probably gravitate towards comic-book and Western animation/cartoon styles more. I am a little tired of the Japanese anime/manga stuff that pervades DeviantArt and other art websites though.

I don't like most "abstract" modern art. The vibe I always get from it is that modern artists are deliberately trying to confuse us to make themselves look smarter or more profound than they actually are. It's like most of the so-called literary fiction genre. It's insufferable pretentiousness.

Thanks for all your responses - it has been really helpful!

Has anyone got any thoughts on portraits or artworks with people in them?

I dont know if its just the lack of emotional imagination, but I have as well my problems with modern art, that offers rare technical skills, but instead goes more about "achieving something emotional". So when it comes to the famous guernica, I can logically accept and as well acknowledge the background and history of the painting, still the technical painting itself still sucks to me. ^^ Colourful and technical more complicated modern arts like "Hundertwasser" and "Klimt" are ok, while "Schiele" is already on the edge, so watching Schiele paintings can be interesting, but its not what I think to be comforting and relaxing, what I think you like to acchieve. Typical "Dürrer" pictures are something I like, so he often only shows one detail (I think americans will mostly know his praying hands.) but because of his pencil-technic, you can see so good and detailled how he created it, that I can spend hours watching his pictures and analyzing what he painted, even if its only about an rabbit picture.

But in general I have to agree into the "classical paintings with no focus on people" chorus. Doesnt need to be country landscapes, but can as well be city-ports with ships or certain buildings. That typical "a bowl with an banana and an apple" paintings, I dont like as well, cant explain why. Maybe it causes hunger and them I am frustrated, that I have nothing to eat, but I cant tell.

About portraits and people. I dont mind people on a picture, "not caring for the painter". So typical "fishers starting in the morning", where you are simply watching other people ignoring you.But typical classic portraits like that of Rembrandt, where the person seems to look at you or the painter, specially with often very harsh face expressions, are not too my liking. I think its specially that "looking at you" that is disturbing me. So that typical "Mother with a child" or "Maria and Jesus pictures, where the actress normally focuses on her child are not bothering to me.

Thanks for your help on this! I too like paintings of older people- maybe because of all the texture and detail in the face.

I wonder if a person's sensory preferences influence what we like to look at? For example I am really tactile so I am not so keen on photography but love looking at artworks with detail and textures?....Do you also see the image as a whole or just focus on a small detail within the image? i.e. looking at a scene of a forest but just focusing on a leaf?

Any thoughts much appreciated!

You could make things really interesting by going with a whole H.R.Geiger theme

If that's too creepy & dark, then how about some Alex Grey?

Art is such a tricky thing as it is so so subjective! What appeals to one person may not appeal to another...
I wonder though whether there is a style of artwork that particularly appeals or does not appeal to people with autism?... Abstract Versus Realism etc?....

Try finding something that will match the whole color scheme of the room.