USA Most Wanted, Komar & Melamid
“The Most Wanted paintings, as well as the Least Wanted paintings, reflect the artists' interpretation of a professional market research survey about aesthetic preferences and taste in painting. Intending to discover what a true "people's art" would look like, the artists, with the support of the Nation Institute, hired Marttila & Kiley, Inc. to conduct the first poll. In 1994, they began the process which resulted in America's Most Wanted and America's Least Wanted paintings, which were exhibited in New York at the Alternative Museum under the title "People's Choice."
In an age where opinion polls and market research invade almost every aspect of our "democratic/consumer" society (with the notable exception of art), Komar and Melamid's project poses relevant questions that an art-interested public, and society in general often fail to ask: What would art look like if it were to please the greatest number of people? Or conversely: What kind of culture is produced by a society that lives and governs itself by opinion polls?
Born, raised, and educated in the former Soviet Union, where government was intended to be designed in the "people's" interest, yet where people were never asked their opinion, Komar and Melamid, ironically, offered the Russian people an opportunity to exercise their taste. Their project took on even greater significance as capitalism--armed with its market-research consumerism and opinion-poll politics--begins to spread unimpeded throughout the former Soviet Union and the rest of the world.”
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