The aim of this research was to investigate the relationship between musical and visual art preferences, and the role of personality traits in predicting preferences for different musical styles and visual art motives. Participants were asked to fill out the following instruments: Questionnaire of music preferences, Questionnaire of visual art preferences, Questionnaire for personality traits International Personality Item Pool [IPIP]; the Arnett Inventory of Sensation Seeking. Results showed that most participants preferred popular and classical music, and landscape motives, while they showed the lowest preferences for heavy metal music and paintings that represented motives of violence and cultures of the world. With regard to the relationship between music and visual art preferences, classical music preferences were positively related to preferences for all visual art motives, while preferences for jazz and world music were positively related to visual art preferences of all motives except religious. Heavy metal music preferences were related to preferences for all motives except landscapes, and popular music preferences were positively associated with religious motives and landscapes. The results of this study suggest a relatively modest contribution of personality traits in explaining music and visual art preferences, although traits for intellect, sensation seeking, and agreeableness were shown to be significant predictors in many instances.

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This paper presents the results of a research on students' reactions to 20th-century visual artworks. The research involved 300 students attending lower grades of primary school (Grade 1-4) from Split-Dalmatia County. The aim of the research was to examine the reactions of students to the works of the famous Pop Art artist Andy Warhol, using the method of aesthetic transfer. The task of the students was to describe their impression of the observed paintings of Marilyn Monroe and Coca-Cola. Based on the results obtained, it can be concluded that Grade 1 1-4 students react positively to the mentioned artworks. Most of the children accepted the works of the famous artist. Students were expected to react differently to the observed artworks with respect to gender and age, while the research showed that a statistically significant difference existed in only one segment of the research. Additionally, the emotional engagement aroused in students by the observed works was studied. The results in the reception phase show students mostly react emotionally to the observed artworks. Furthermore, the artworks in the reaction phase showed interesting creative variations on the artwork of the famous artist, which means that they inspired the students to a creative aesthetic response. Apart from getting acquainted with 20th-century artworks, we can see from these examples that they can also be a good stimulus for articulating students' own artistic expression.Keywords: students, visual artworks, attitudes, motif, Andy Warhol

The research presented here aims to determine how art education influences students’ preferences for the 20th-century art movements. An educational experiment that spanned through one school year was conducted on 200 primary school students. It included three types of intervention: observing works of art from the 20th century, introducing works of art using a puppet, and the students’ art activities/artwork based on the 20th-century art movements. The results show that the model of art education is an important factor in changing students’ preferences for the 20th century art movements. Students reacted positively to each kind of education, as evidenced in the wider acceptance of 20th-century art (abstract, fauvism, cubism, pop art, and surrealism). The type of education did not influence preferences (as much) when it came to classical art and visual works without artistic value. We concluded that puppets and independent creative work should be used more often in art education.

The aim of this research was to evaluate how teachers recognize younger pupils who are artistically gifted (in visual arts). The participants were 150 elementary school teachers (1 st to 4 th grade) from the Split-Dalmatia County and the Dubrovnik-Neretva County in Croatia. Their task was to answer the questions in the two-part questionnaire in a truthful manner. The results showed that the participants were familiar with the characteristics by which they could recognize gifted children. There were also confirmed statistically significant differences in identifying younger gifted pupils, regarding the teachers' work experience and level of education. The more educated and less experienced teachers were less successful in identifying gifted pupils than their more experienced, but less educated colleagues. No significant influence of the rural or urban background was noticed. We concluded that experience was a relevant factor in identifying gifted pupils.