Was Jackson Pollock the Greatest Modern American Painter?: A Quantitative Investigation

Galenson, David W.

doi:10.1080/01615440209601202

Cited by 13 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…In 1963 he arrived at the technique that he would generally use thereafter, as he began by making a small drawing that he then projected onto a larger canvas to allow him to trace the outlines for the images in his paintings 210. Lichtenstein made most of his best-known works in 1963, including Whaam!, which is the single painting by any American artist of his generation that is most often reproduced in textbooks 211. Thus although Lichtenstein did not produce his breakthrough work until he was 40 years old, he arrived at the images that embodied his major conceptual innovation less than three years after his first exposure to New York's advanced art world.The social sciences do not produce deterministic laws from which there are no deviations, so inevitably there will be experimental artists who make major contributions early in theircareers, and conceptual artists who make major contributions late in theirs.…”

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confidence: 99%

The Life Cycles of Modern Artists: Theory, Measurement, and Implications

Galenson

2003

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There have been two very different life cycles for important modern artists: some, including Picasso, have made their greatest contributions early in their careers, whereas others, like Cézanne, have produced their best work late in their lives. Art's young geniuses have worked deductively to make conceptual innovations, while its old masters have worked inductively, to innovate experimentally. These two life cycles emerge from quantitative analysis of a wide range of evidence, and recognizing the differences between them allows a new understanding of a number of issues in art history. The two life cycles are furthermore not limited to painting, for the association between deduction and early achievement, and that between induction and late creativity, also clearly appear in quantitative studies of the careers of important economists and poets. Understanding the careers of modern artists therefore leads to a deeper understanding of the life cycles of human creativity in general.

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The Life Cycles of Modern Artists: Theory, Measurement, and Implications

Galenson

2003

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“…It has become a commonplace of art history that "after the Second World War, the art world witnessed the birth and development of an American avant-garde, which in the space of a few years succeeded in shifting the cultural center of the West from Paris to New York," (Guilbaut, 1963). For two generations, New York became the 8 1 On the selection of these artists, see Galenson (2002). preeminent source of major innovations in modern art.…”

Section: From Abstract Expressionism To Pop Artmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Life Cycles of Modern Artists

Galenson

2004

Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdiscipli

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There have been two very different life cycles for great modern artists: some have made their major contributions early in their careers, while others have produced their best work later in their lives. These patterns have been associated with different artistic goals and working methods: artists who peak late are motivated by aesthetic considerations and work by trial and error, whereas artists who peak early are motivated by conceptual concerns and plan their work in advance. This paper shows that Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and the other leading Abstract Expressionists, who were experimental innovators, produced their best work considerably later in their careers than did Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, and the other leading conceptual innovators of the generation that followed them. These results not only yield a new understanding of the life cycles of creative individuals, but also provide new insights into the value of works of art.

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“… Elsewhere Galenson (, , , ) and Galenson and Weinberg () studied 20th century American artists (again born between 1900 and 1920 and between 1920 and 1940) and found that, ranking artists born in similar time periods exhibited the same creativity characteristics. This study originated in Galenson and Weinberg () and is repeated in other contributions (2005b, 2006a).…”

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Age and productivity: An empirical study of early American artists

Ekelund¹,

Jackson²,

Tollison³

2015

Southern Economic Journal

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Economist David Galenson, using both statistical and anecdotal methods, divides artists into two types, innovative or conceptual (who "peak" at younger ages) and experimental (peaking at older ages), to investigate how age is related to creativity. This well-known distinction has met with criticism and alternative theories of artistic productivity. We here extend Galensons formal statistical methods to a new sample of American artists born prior to 1900, a period when according to Galenson, "most" American artists can be identified as experimental. Specifically, we explore the use of quantitative and qualitative analysis to shed light on the relationship between age and artistic productivity. We investigate whether this classification has substantial explanatory power for the age at which the most important artistic work is achieved over the life cycle. Our results do not support the bifurcation but indicate that a number of factors must be used in any life cycle investigation linking age to artistic creativity.

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Was Jackson Pollock the Greatest Modern American Painter?: A Quantitative Investigation

Cited by 13 publications

References 3 publications

The Life Cycles of Modern Artists: Theory, Measurement, and Implications

The Life Cycles of Modern Artists: Theory, Measurement, and Implications

The Life Cycles of Modern Artists

Age and productivity: An empirical study of early American artists

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