Brickies top art test

Builders have no problem identifying an Andy Warhol
11 April 2012
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

They are notorious for turning up late, but now builders have a more desirable tag to their name.

A survey has discovered that Britain's brickies know more about modern art than any other profession.

Where other workers stumble, builders have no problem identifying an Andy Warhol or Damien Hurst.

Some 30% of builders answered every modern art question correctly - from who won this year's Turner Prize to identifying Jackson Pollock as an abstract expressionist.

Britain's professionals trail behind, with only 18% of doctors and 23% of IT professionals knowing their modern masters.

The survey of five different groups of workers - accountants, IT managers, retail workers, builders and doctors - found that 62% of builders correctly categorised Jackson Pollock's paintings as abstract impressionism.

The majority of other workers called the painter a pop artist, surrealist or cubist.

A total of 80% of builders correctly stated that Andy Warhol's soup cans were Campbell's, compared to 46% of doctors.

The research, marking Europe's second annual painting prize the Lexmark European Art Prize, concluded that Britain's knowledge of modern art was "dismal".

Of the Britons surveyed, 83%, picked the wrong answer when asked who won this year's Turner Prize, selecting made up names instead of transvestite potter Grayson Perry.

Asked what brand of soup Andy Warhol famously painted, the majority cited Baxters, the Covent Garden Soup Company or Heinz.

A spokesman for the Lexmark European Art Prize, which commissioned the survey, said: "We were surprised by the level of knowledge of modern art amongst Britain's brickies.

"It just goes to show you can't judge people by their professions.
"In general Britain's knowledge of modern art was pretty dismal."

The survey of 500 workers found that accountants are the UK's most artistic profession when it comes to art in general - with 57% getting every question right - ranging from who painted the Mona Lisa to identifying the artist behind the Scream.

Retail assistants were Britain's least artistic profession, with 37% not able to answer any of the 11 questions on art.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in