What You Think of This Sam Gilliam Painting Reveals Your True Feelings About Donald Trump, Too, Pollsters Say

Do you like this Sam Gilliam painting? The answer may say more
about you than you think.

A study by the progressive think tank Data for Progress has found that
participants who approve of president Donald Trump are less likely
to consider Sam Gilliam’s colorful abstract drawing Coffee
Thyme (1980) a genuine work of art. Those who do
consider Gilliam’s work to be art are more likely to disapprove of
Trump.

The correlation, which is being called the “Coffee Thyme Gap,”
is even bigger than the college-degree gap, another metric commonly
used to measure political divisions. Forty-five percent of college
graduates approve of Trump—while just a 36 percent of those who
like Coffee Thyme also support Trump

Data for Progress predicted at the outset that Trump advocates
would be less likely to appreciate Coffee
Thyme based on the so-called “openness to experience”
personality trait, according to Vox. More commonly
found among people with left-wing political opinions, the “openness
to experience” attribute typically indicates a tolerance of
diversity. It also often corresponds to a higher level of education
and a higher IQ.

Among the more than 1,100 respondents to the Data for Progress
poll, 46 percent judged the Gilliam work to be art, while 38
percent disagreed and the other 12 percent were unsure. The study’s
findings are limited to just one work—and one that seems
cherry-picked to provoke the “My kid could do that!” response—but
despite the small sample size it does provide an interesting
baseline in terms of how taste in art and political opinion may
align.

Another study published earlier this year found that Democrats tend to have more
creative personalities than Republicans. The Data for Progress
results could also be seen to be in line with a British study
published last fall, which found that Brexit supporters typically
prefer realistic artworks, while abstraction appeals more to
“Remainers.”

Coffee Thyme is part of the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, which
purchased it in 1983. According to the Grove Encyclopedia
of American Art, it was one of a number of works from the late
1970s where Gilliam “attempted to achieve an expressive intensity
of color while paying homage to Jackson Pollock and Jasper Johns,
claiming a place in the epic tradition of American painting.”

The post What You Think of This Sam Gilliam Painting Reveals
Your True Feelings About Donald Trump, Too, Pollsters Say
appeared first on artnet News.