Old Masters and Young Geniuses
The Two Life Cycles of Artistic Creativity
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $23.99
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- $23.99
Publisher Description
When in their lives do great artists produce their greatest art? Do they strive for creative perfection throughout decades of painstaking and frustrating experimentation, or do they achieve it confidently and decisively, through meticulous planning that yields masterpieces early in their lives?
By examining the careers not only of great painters but also of important sculptors, poets, novelists, and movie directors, Old Masters and Young Geniuses offers a profound new understanding of artistic creativity. Using a wide range of evidence, David Galenson demonstrates that there are two fundamentally different approaches to innovation, and that each is associated with a distinct pattern of discovery over a lifetime.
Experimental innovators work by trial and error, and arrive at their major contributions gradually, late in life. In contrast, conceptual innovators make sudden breakthroughs by formulating new ideas, usually at an early age. Galenson shows why such artists as Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Cézanne, Jackson Pollock, Virginia Woolf, Robert Frost, and Alfred Hitchcock were experimental old masters, and why Vermeer, van Gogh, Picasso, Herman Melville, James Joyce, Sylvia Plath, and Orson Welles were conceptual young geniuses. He also explains how this changes our understanding of art and its past.
Experimental innovators seek, and conceptual innovators find. By illuminating the differences between them, this pioneering book provides vivid new insights into the mysterious processes of human creativity.
Customer Reviews
Method to the Art
Frank Lloyd Wright did not begin his career formally lettered and licensed as an architect. Yet his career was prolific and many of his greatest achievements came later in his life. The same can be said for many authors, musicians, and other creatives. Then there are the young creatives who blaze a path when they first hit the scene only to die young or fade away. This book disseminates the difference between the older experimental creatives and the younger conceptual geniuses.
This duality first was presented to me when reading a book by Malcolm Gladwell, who recommended this book as a source for further research on the topic. While David Galenson’s prosaic style deviates regrettably from Gladwell’s, it remains a compelling read. Especially, if like me, your youth has passed and you’re still striving to put out your best work. A question you can start to answer through the various, though repetitive, analyses of creative processes and outputs for a number of experimental and conceptual creatives.
What really stands out in this book is the scientific and rigorous way Galenson approaches the subject. Galenson provides a significant amount of supporting evidence to prove out his observations. Then he goes into a careful deep dive into the nuance that comprises each group of artists. An import step because we all know artists resist labels, so it’s best to be flexible with categorization. Packed with facts, figures, examples, and critique; this one is a slow read but short book.