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And the Young Geniuses?
In addition to Picasso, Raphael and Vermeer were Young Geniuses. Most important artists working today--Cindy Sherman and Damien Hirst--are also Young Geniuses.
How come?
In modern art, both critics and collectors have recognized that innovation is the key to value in art. Still, there will always be the Cezannes of the world, though we may not know who they are until they are in their 60s or 70s or 80s.
How will we recognize them?
Other artists will tell us. Cezanne became important after he died because Matisse and Picasso had begun to use his work. It's not curators, it's not critics, it's not the public, it's not collectors who find great artists—it's other artists.
What's the difference in how Young Geniuses and Old Masters think?
Conceptual people—the Young Geniuses—emphasize the new idea, and plan their work very carefully. They often say that the execution is perfunctory. Indeed, in today's world, some of the greatest conceptual artists don't even execute their own work—they have it made by other people. But the Old Masters are never entirely sure what it is they want done, so they couldn't possibly have anybody else do it. Cezanne couldn't have said to somebody, "Go and make a painting for me."
Comments
David Galenson has many interestings things to say about Creativity in general, and about the work of particular artists. But his attempt to put so many people into a simple bipolar strait- jacket is not convincing. Take Picasso. Picasso is described as a 'young genius' who did his most significant work at the age of twenty- six. In fact Picasso was a life- long innovator many of whose major masterpieces including 'Guernica' came when he was well out of his twenties. Picasso furthermore was a constant experimenter and innovator, a continual producer of new styles and modes. He would seem to fit both Galenson's categories, being both a ' conceptual' and 'an experiential' artist. The truth is that each individual creative life is a story of its own. And that in fact 'understanding each of them individually' or each in conjunction with other creators is an not a closed- process but an open- one. There will always be new ways of seeing these great creators which helps us understand them in new ways.
Posted by Shalom Freedman on October 16,2008 | 08:50 AM