Sunday, January 18, 2009

"Traditional, vibrant, and tasteful"























That phrase describes me, according to an online quiz, "What Your Taste in Art Says About You." Much to my surprise, the test pegged Islamic art as my favorite, and told me this:

"People that like Islamic art tend to be more traditional people that appreciate keeping patterns that they learned and experienced from their past. It is not to say that they are not innovative personalities, they just do not like to let go of their roots. They like to put new ideas into details and make certain that they will work before sharing them with others. Failure is not something they like to think about because they are more interested in being successful and appreciated for their intelligence. These people can also be or like elaborate things in their life as long as they are tasteful. They tend to prefer geometric patterns and vibrant colors."

Clumsy writing aside, that's not wildly off target as a personal profile of me. I do indeed like to mull over ideas for a long time before I share them, and I avoid failure more than I should. As for being tasteful, all I can say is that I think my sense of taste is a tad better than that of the people who do the graphics at HelloQuizzy. They illustrated my test results with a fairly hideous horse painting, which you should be able to see--along with the details of my test--here. I'd have chosen something more like the Savafid painting above.

You can take the test yourself by going here. (Thanks to sunt_lacrimae_rerum for the link, which I found at her blog, Gubbinal.)


Woman With a Spray of Flowers, Safavid Iran, c.1575. Image from Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

11 comments:

Julie H. Rose said...

I assumed this was the same test I took awhile back. When I took that test, I chose more Islamic art than any other, which was surprising, but just like this test, the choices were not very good. However, this time I scored highest on Renaissance art and therefore I'm supposed to be "conscientious, fulfilled, and spiritual." I'm also supposed to be emotionally stable, so there's another reason to distrust the results. Who makes up these tests (and why do I like taking them)?

BitterGrace said...

I'm pretty sure I like taking them because they usually tell me how I'm vibrant and tasteful, instead of obsessive, indecisive and socially awkward. (Actually, that's not always true--the Enneagram invariably pegs me as a 4 with a 5 wing, which means I have the same type as Kurt Cobain, Diane Arbus, Anne Sexton, Van Gogh, Virginia Woolf, etc. That can't be good.)

David Maddox said...

I scored highest on Islamic, then Renaissance. The thing was, I like good art. They had some marginal abstract paintings--but when Demoiselles D'Avignon popped up I picked that. One thing this might show is that in Islamic art there is more consistent level of appeal. With some of the other genres, like Impressionism, its a thin line between stuff that is treacly and sublime. But I guess that says something about my personality.

BitterGrace said...

You're both right about the choices within genres being so variable. That's got to skew the results. Still, I was sometimes a little surprised by my choices. I passed over images I would have said I liked--they just lost a lot of their appeal when they were side by side with something else.

Mary said...

Mine came out Renaissance. 'Consciencious, fulfilled, spiritual' seems like a trite, easy kind of comparison with some Renaissance art...much of which was actually egocentric and elitist. So I thought this was fun, but pretty meaningless. :)
And besides, what I really love is Medieval art.

Julie H. Rose said...

Here's a link to the original art test on the BBC website. It's a more complex test:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/art/

Whodoo said...

I'm Vibrant and Tasteful, too.

33 Islamic,
11 Impressionist,
25 Ukiyo-e,
-25 Cubist,
-35 Abstract and
17 Renaissance

I'm also a 4w5 (but an INFJ).

BitterGrace said...

So basically, we're both doomed, huh, R? At least we'll go out in style.:-)

Mary, it's funny that Medieval art was not even an option. Neither was African art. Or Native American art. Or cave painting...

I'm going to go take that BBC test.

BitterGrace said...

The BBC test says:

"Your favourite type of art is Japanese ukiyo-e.

In the personality profile you had a high intellectualism score, which suggests you like to think about abstract ideas and have a creative imagination."


Bully for me. Apparently, most people of my age and gender prefer Impressionism. Ditto for my personality type. So I'm out of step, as usual.

Whodoo said...

*grin* I'm in total synch with your out-of-stepness, 'cause that's exactly what I got, too.

I'd like to think that some of us 4w5 Bohemians don't die by suicide ... maybe we'll be the first, Gracie.

BitterGrace said...

Maybe there's hope, R. I think I read somewhere that Neil Young is a 4w5, and he seems highly unlikely to off himself.