The Humor-Art Connection:
Vitalist Humor and Artistic Preference
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ITCHS’ research over thirty years has revealed many correlations between humor preferences and other variables, such as age, critical thinking, patriotic song preference, and even health habits. In 2017, we had the opportunity to expand our research into possible correlations using the invaluable resources of the European, American, and extensive Hudson River School collections at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum (http://www.mmam.org/).
Using MMAM’s resources, we sought to find correlations between viewer art preference and Vitalist humor preference, using our Langer/Bergson Vitalist Humor Test. The investigation divided selected paintings by social aspects in the subject treated: Nature, Ships, Boats, Individuals or duos, Groups of People, and Civilization. It then looked for correlations with preferences for four Vitalist humor forms: Potential, Tenacity, Performance, and Creativity. Numerous high-confidence results revealed clues for further study Into audience artistic-humor appreciation.
For the final report of that investigation, see
Final Report of MMAM-2/ITCHS Vitalist Humor Assessment
This study of painting preferences and humor preferences was modeled after a similar initial study of audience appreciation of two different art forms: paintings and purple passages in Shakespeare’s great tragedies. Results of that investigation revealed high-confidence correlations between preferred Shakespearean tragedic language forms and particular artistic features exhibited in MMAM’s European and American holdings.
For that report, see
Final Report of MMAM-1/ITCHS Shakespearean Tragedic Language Assessment
The study of Shakespearean tragedic language and artistic preference revealed more high confidence correlations than did the follow-up study involving Vitalist humor. This difference may be somewhat accounted for by the fact that the two studies distinguished paintings by two different classifications. The Shakespearean study classified paintings according to six painterly qualities: Light, Depth, Harmony or Peacefulness, Movement, Chaos or Aggression, and Toward Abstraction. The Vitalist humor investigation divided paintings by social aspects in the subject treated: Nature, Ships, Boats, Individuals or duos, Groups of People, and Civilization.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful for MMAM’s making available their gallery of pre- through post-Impressionist painters, including Claude Monet, Pierre-August Renoir, Vincent Van Gogh, Berthe Morrisot, and Jean-François Millet, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso.
Hudson River School and other American galleries provided access to a broad collection of nineteenth- and twentieth-century American works, including paintings by such well-known artists as Georgia O'Keefe, James Wyatt, Mary Cassatt, Thomas Cole, Frederick Church, Asher Durand, James Butterworth, and Edward Potthast. Notably, the museum featured James Hope's Rainbow Falls, Martin Heade's Great Florida Sunset, Winslow Homer’s Winding Line, and Emmanuel Leutze's Washington Crossing the Delaware.
We are much indebted to MMAM’s willingness to let us investigate using their collections. And we are deeply grateful for the cooperation of staff and dozens of volunteers. Without their help, the investigations could not have happened.