05/31/2013
ART OF THE DAY
“All the case histories point in one direction—the extraordinary flowering of artistic genius in old age,” Thomas Dormandy wrote in his book Old Masters: Great Artists in Old Age. While Dormandy rejected the attractive idea of creativity as an antidote to physical or mental decline—“it is contradicted by the facts”—he explored the powerful inner shifts in old age that propelled many artists to new heights, whether it’s Monet painting his “Water Lilies” when he was almost blind after cataract surgery, or Matisse inventing his paper cutouts in his last years when confined to his bed and a wheelchair.