Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Are mature artists welcome in the World of Art?

Is it more convenient for the world of Art and art auction houses if mature artists simply retire from their creative pursuits and fade fade away?

Still Prime Time? discusses the topic of artists' later works with Picasso as a prime example of what can happen when creative people dare to age and paint.

Does their work even hold up as being purchase-worthy?

Is the market for their efforts diluted by their extended availability?

Well, read the article for more details, but I say that humankind doesn't create Art as much as use it to express who we really are inside. And I didn't realize there were limitations on it because I thought we were meant to become more of who we are as our lives go on.

Actually some artists, famous and otherwise, use their involvement in the creative process - whatever medium they prefer - as a way of transcending life's difficulties such as illness, lack of resources, a dearth of love, a lonely lifestyle...you know - human problems. And if the world presents someone who wishes to purchase such artwork, who are auction houses or galleries to stop them? Should anyone's age be a factor in the transaction if the eyes are satisfied?

Okay, I'm babbling, and didn't expect to become this animated about the topic. Must be my middle-agedness speaking through a lifelong habit of drawing for which I will not apologize!

So whether you like my creations or not, I shall go on creating them, for not to transcribe the visualized images in my brain onto paper is more of a nuisance than to perpetrate whatever forms a blank sheet of paper conjures...such as this old favorite, Moonrise at the Crossroads, just in time for Oct 7, 2009's 160th anniversary of the mysterious death of Edgar Allan Poe.

Oh! and Halloween approacheth you know.



Then, if you can take a bit of Poetry with your Art, here's a fresh rhyme just published today titled, An Ode to Readers of Poe, so curl up with your wine or tea cup - or your wine in a tea cup - and think of Edgar Allan Poe, Father of the Modern Detective Novel.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think its important to diferenciate between mature art and mature artists. Many mature artists produce immature work due to their lack of artistic growth or reliance on pure egotiscal self gratification. Whilst many artists do produce a mature art where the childish 'look at me' tendency is simply not in the art on show. Although I think that you are right, in as much that 'mature' artists can produce art with 'Value' but I believe that goes beyond monetary valuation and is more inclined to have a 'spiritual' feel.

Denis Taylor
Painter. Sweden

Jude Cowell said...

Good points, Denis, thanks!

Your analysis of immature artists and their art is on the mark and i agree with you 100% including about a spiritual quality (which i prefer at any age!)

Yet whether mature artists are Welcome in the art world relies on people's prejudices - agism abounds, but perhaps it's more of an issue in youth-addicted America!

Thanks for your thoughts on the matter, and i wish you'd included a link to your own work! Jude ;p