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Introduction to Old Masters and Young Geniuses: The Two Life Cycles of Artistic Creativity

In: Old Masters and Young Geniuses: The Two Life Cycles of Artistic Creativity

Author

Listed:
  • David W. Galenson

    (University of Chicago, National Bureau of Economic Research)

Abstract

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.

Suggested Citation

  • David W. Galenson, 2007. "Introduction to Old Masters and Young Geniuses: The Two Life Cycles of Artistic Creativity," Introductory Chapters, in: Old Masters and Young Geniuses: The Two Life Cycles of Artistic Creativity, Princeton University Press.
  • Handle: RePEc:pup:chapts:8019-1
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Julio Elías & Gustavo Ferro & Álvaro García, 2019. "A Quest for Quality: Creativity and Innovation in the Wine Industry of Argentina," Asociación Argentina de Economía Política: Working Papers 4135, Asociación Argentina de Economía Política.
    2. Borowiecki, Karol Jan & Dahl, Christian Møller, 2021. "What makes an artist? The evolution and clustering of creative activity in the US since 1850," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    3. Elias Julio Jorge & Castro Walter, 2023. "Adam Smith, Experimental Innovator, through the Lenses of Conceptual Innovators," Asociación Argentina de Economía Política: Working Papers 4649, Asociación Argentina de Economía Política.
    4. Karol Jan BOROWIECKI, 2019. "The Origins of Creativity: The Case of the Arts in the United States since 1850," Trinity Economics Papers tep0219, Trinity College Dublin, Department of Economics.
    5. Jose Sanchez-Fung, 2019. "Examining the life-cycle artistic productivity of Latin American photographers," ACEI Working Paper Series AWP-05-2019, Association for Cultural Economics International, revised Dec 2019.

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