The Seven Characteristics that Distinguish Older Artists over their Younger Peers

I went back to college when I was 51.  I sat in chairs designed for the young, next to my fellow students who were also...well, young.  Adding insult to injury, I needed tutoring -- from the young -- to learn the new technology that these kids in their late teens and twenties grew up with and used as casually as I once used the rotary phone.

It was culture shock.  But more than that.  It was the shock of realizing I was rapidly approaching the gray realm of Old Age.  My first small encounters with...ageism.

Ageism is insidious in that it is so acceptable.  Logical.  It is also based -- at least with regard to late-life creativity -- on scientific research that reinforces traditional views about aging and the mental and physical decline models.

Even when it comes to "creativity" -- something that can't be touched, tested, or accurately measured, let alone understood --  the scientific community  still relies on research that is "objective" and "measurable" -- sort of like trying to catch a fish with your hands.  The easiest one to grab becomes the archetype for the "Creative Old Guy."

But I recently started reading a book by Martin S. Lindauer, titled AGING, CREATIVITY, AND ART, A Positive Perspective on Late-Life Development.

This is a very recent book, with a copyright date of 2003, and reads like a research paper with numerous citations.

It is still worth the effort.

Because here is the good news.  According to Lindauer,  new research reveals that over time, creative people increase both the quality of their artistic output, and the quantity, over their lifetimes, with productivity peaking during their 60's, but the quality of the output remaining steady at the lifetime highs well into the 70's.

Even for artists working in their 80's, their quality ratings were higher -- get that, higher! -- than when  they were in their 20's and 30's.

How can this be?   

According to Lindauer, there are seven characteristics that distinguish "old artists and late art from young artists and youthful efforts." 

• "Older artists have more knowledge and are less career oriented.
• "They also have less energy - the only case where older artists were at a disadvantage to younger ones..."
• "...which they compensated for with greater maturity, concentration, and self-acceptance."
• "Older artists were also less critical than their younger counterparts."
• "However, in two areas, creativity and experimentation, older artists were seen as equal to younger practitioners." (2003, pp.187-188)

Further, while discussing the age at which an artist's "Old Age Style" might emerge, Lindauer wrote, "...the 60-year-old artists, and many of the 70-year-olds who were studied, were 'too young' to have an old-age style."

Re-read that last part again: even the 70-year-olds were too young to have an old age style!

Sometimes the challenges of reinventing yourself at mid-life can seem so daunting that you want to give up.  I know that for me, discouragement became my constant companion to the point where I nearly gave up on the whole "career" idea, caught up in my fear of having "missed the creative boat."

But knowing that, at 60, I am still decades away from having an "Old Age Style" has renewed my energy, sending me back out into the creative world with rekindled optimism.

I hope to see  you all there!

 

Comments

[MaryAnn Cleary]

What a great article! I left the corporate world last November 2007 to pursue my dream of being an artist...it still is a bit frightening leaving a paying position, but I know that I made the right decision.

[Linda]

Since retiring in my mid 50's I have been very diligently working at creating art. Now at 61, I truly feel more as if I am actually creating other than being on the outside looking in. I am more confident now and am more able to please myself without worrying about what other people think. Thanks for a great article.

[Anima]

As a "young artist" I was inspired by your post. I hope that my art will continue growing as I age and the study you cited reinforced that hope. Plus, now knowing some of the weaknesses of young artists, I can work to avoid them.

[Peter Yesis]

One more thing that we beginning ancients do is look for blogs like yours. I gave up the day job at 50 and haven't looked back. Thanks for an interesting post and a great blog.

[vivien]

I too did my degree late - I was lucky that only one tutor struggled a bit with mature students and wasn't quite sure how to deal with us!

My fellow students, a handful of mature and the rest school leavers, were great, making little difference in their treatment of us because of age. They'd come and call me when recycled canvasses were being doled out free, sit and chat over coffee and stop for a crit session.

I think being older it was easier to hang on to 'me' whilst experimenting and trying out all the new ideas, while some of the young students chopped and changed in an effort to please tutors, often losing their own identity in their work in the process - though by the final year they'd mostly regained it.

Energy - yes, my energy levels were lower.

I think my work, and yours, is contemporary and we are both aware that we'll continue to develop and learn and experiment.

At my interview the tutor interviewing said that he hoped I realised that there was little chance of earning a living from art and I agreed that of course not, I simply wanted to learn. The second part was true but I had my fingers crossed on the first part!

It was a buzz - often scary, always hard work and intensive and challenging but so satisfying :>)

[Bonnie Luria]

Great concepts here Sue, that we often sense but can't articulate with the certainty of fact.
But I see this morphing for my own development and we are not, as humans all that different so I thought other " older " artists must think the same way.
Thanks so much for defining this for us through your great readings and writings.

You are an inspiration- truly!