A recent survey by Encyclopaedia Britannica shows that Americans aren’t the only artistic illiterates (although we still do it with more flair). In the homeland of so much Western culture, the United Kingdom, the basic awareness of artists and art is just as grim. A few excerpts:
Meanwhile, despite the painting’s popularity with students, more than four out of five people (85%) cannot name the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch as the artist behind The Scream.
Of course, there’s a large argument to say that people can engage in creative and artistic experience regardless of their book learnin’. But if engagement and enjoyment of the classic arts is dependent on a foundation knowledge of its history, we may have a problem.