It wouldn't be the first time someone looked at an abstract painting and declared, ‘my three-year-old nephew could do that too!’ Perhaps their ‘four-year-old daughter’ or a ‘monkey with a paintbrush’ have the same artistic talent. It doesn’t matter which one it is, the message is clear: the quality of the painting is called into question because the work could have been made by anyone — a daughter, a monkey etc. But is this also true?
Two developmental psychologists, Angelina Hawley-Dolan and Ellen Winner, investigated whether the paintings of children and animals are indeed as beautiful as the works of professional artists. For this, they asked the public to judge the Abstract Expressionist paintings of professional artists, children, monkeys and elephants. As it turned out, the participants found the paintings of the professional artists by far the most beautiful. In short, the statement that a three-year-old has the same artistic skill as a professional painter is incorrect.
Source: Hawley-Dolan, A., and E. Winner. 2011. “Seeing the Mind Behind the Art. People Can
Distinguish Abstract Expressionist Paintings from Highly Similar Paintings by Children, Chimps,
Monkeys, and Elephants.” Psychological Science 22 (4): 435–41.