FINLAND

Finland's Most Wanted:
(refrigerator door size)
Finland's Least Wanted:
(paperback size)

Survey Notes

This survey has been carried out to explore the opinions and attitudes of Finns about art. In total 507 telephone interviews were carried out in October 1994. The results represent the Finnish population in terms of regional, age and sex distribution.

A majority of the respondents consider their spending decisions carefully, and are willing to pay more for style or design. The design and color of the object are considered to be important choice criteria for all product categories studied, and color is also admitted to affect people's mood by nearly 90 % of the respondents. Favourite colours are primarily blue and secondarily brown, white and green.

Respondents feel both the way they dress and the way they decorate their home is at least somewhat important. Works of art are chosen mostly to agree with the owner's taste, and only secondarily to fit the decor at home. Almost 9 out of 10 respondents have family photographs displayed at home, and 84 % state they have some kind of art displayed. These are mostly either original paintings, drawings or prints (80 % of those displaying art at home), sculptures or small statues (65%) or prints and posters (61 %). The preferred type of art is of traditional style, mostly Finnish, but also to some extent Scandinavian or European. Respondents prefer slightly more often older objects to newer objects.

The preferred items in the paintings are wild animals (51%), natural setting (91%), outdoor scenes (86%) and non-religious art (56%). For outdoor scenes people prefer water, lakes and seas and sceneries in fall tints. For indoor paintings the favorites are domestic scenes with animals.

The educational role of the art is of less importance, and people feel art can be just something one enjoys looking at. Art should bear resemblance to reality, state 58 % of the respondents. In case of "non-realistic" art it should depict imaginary objects in random uneven patterns, with soft curves, equally often in bold and playful designs.

As to the techniques of the painting, people prefer expressive brush-strokes, thick textured surfaces, blended colors and paler shades of colors. In atmosphere, the paintings should show festive mood in simple settings. Larger paintings are preferred, up to the size of a refrigerator door. For about half of the respondents it makes no difference, whether the paintings depict famous or ordinary people. The fgures are preferred painted while working, fully clothed and in groups.

Research International Finland 1994



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