Photography is the preferred form of visual art

We have asked our panel members about their favorite form of visual art and their statement is clear – in Ireland and all the Nordic countries except for Denmark, photography is the preferred form of visual art.

As mentioned we have asked our panel members in the Nordics as well as in Ireland what form of visual art they like the best and the results from the different countries are all very similar. Where Ceramics and Sculpture are the most unpopular art forms, Drawings / paintings and Photography are definitely the most popular. This is quite interesting as these two forms of art has been in somewhat of a war, since many people have argued that photography is not an art form as the camera records reality without human imagination in contrast to creating paintings which demands inspiration and imagination. By now, however, many photographs have been recognized as art, since the camera in many ways resembles the painter's brush and the photographer needs to use the light, think about composition, exposure times, framing, creativity etc.  

On the third place we find Architecture with between 7 (Norway) and 11 (Sweden) percent of the answers. Of course some people don't like visual art at all and in this regard the Danes seem to be more reluctant than the rest of the panel members, since 7 percent answer that they do not like visual art and 10 percent simply don't know what to think of it. On the contrary, in Ireland only 3 percent have answered that they don't know and only 1 percent state they do not like visual art.