Newspaper Article

G2: Better late than ever?: Artists over 50 are no longer considered past their peak. As a new Turner exhibition opens, curator Sam Smiles asks if it's time art outgrew its obsession with age

Smiles, Sam

2014

Overview

By 1880 a music critic could refer to \"the so-called 'late [Beethoven]'\" as an established reference point. And in 1878 Beethoven's example was invoked by one of Turner's champions, William Kingsley, to defend his last watercolours: \"These late Swiss drawings bear the same relation to his early work that Beethoven's Choral Symphony does to one of the simple movements of his early pianoforte sonatas.\" Goethe's last works were also highly admired as an example of radical invention in old age, leading to the formal identification of old-age style (Altersstil) as a specific aesthetic phenomenon. By the end of the 19th century \"late work\", \"late style\" and \"old-age style\" began to establish themselves within the lexicon. Then there's the problem with the term itself. \"The late work\" seems entirely innocuous, yet once one begins to question how it's used, let alone what it actually means, problems begin to multiply. How long is a late period? The last 10 years of a career? The last five? It seems to be an entirely arbitrary decision. It can't be attributed simply on the basis of age, either, for not every elderly artist is considered to have produced distinctive late works. And because people's experience of old age is highly varied, age itself tells you nothing about an artist's work.

• Publisher: Guardian News & Media Limited