| Abstract: |
This paper considers not only when in their careers the greatest artists of
the twentieth century made their greatest discoveries, but also how quickly
they made them. The results underscore the dominant position of Picasso and
Cubism in twentieth-century art: Picasso alone accounts for the two best
three-year periods produced by any artist, and he and Braque account for three
of the best five-year periods, all for the work the two young artists did in
developing Cubism. Warhol’s innovations in Pop art and Matisse’s development
of Fauvism also rank among the century’s most important breakthroughs. In
general, identifying the most important short periods of artistic creativity
emphasizes the differing methods of conceptual and experimental artists: great
conceptual innovators, like Picasso, Matisse, and Warhol, made their greatest
discoveries abruptly, whereas great experimental innovators, like Mondrian,
Kandinsky, and Pollock, made their discoveries more gradually. The finding
that artists who innovate early in their lives do so suddenly, while those who
innovate late do so more gradually, adds an important dimension to our
understanding of human creativity. |