"Light is the giver of all presence."
- Louis Isadore Kahn
American architect 1901-1974
This session will present selected works of four major artists of the twentieth century who exemplify positive aging, innovation, and creativity throughout their lives. Each of these artists produced masterpieces in their later adulthood.
The forces that shaped their personalities and their creativity will be discussed from a standpoint of their aging process with reference to Gardner's concepts of multiple intelligence and Erikson's concept of "generativity".
Erik Erikson and Psychosocial Development
Erik Erikson (1902-1994) said we develop in psychosocial stages. Erikson emphasized developmental change throughout the human life span. In Erikson’s theory, eight stages of development unfold as we go through our evolving life span. Each stage consists of a crisis that must be faced. According to Erikson, this crisis is not a catastrophe but a turning point of increased vulnerability and enhanced potential. The more an individual resolves the crises successfully, the healthier development will be.
Generativity is associated with the seventh stage of psychosocial development. The seventh stage is that of middle adulthood. It is hard to pin a time to it, but it would include the period during which we are actively involved in raising children, creating careers, and creating our adulthood path.. For most people in our society, this would put it somewhere between the middle thirties and the late sixties. The task here is to cultivate the proper balance of generativity and stagnation.
It is the passing on, the sharing, of whatever a person is creating or producing. Erikson made it clear that this "passing on" came not necessarily from a caring for the next generation, but out of a love for one’s works and ideas. Generativity is an extension of love into the future and "the meaning of life is a matter of how we participate and what we contribute". Creating art to be publicly acknowledged and designing buildings for future generations are all part of the artist’s generativity.
It is a concern for the next generation and all future generations. As such, it is considerably less "selfish" than the intimacy of the previous stage: Intimacy, the love between lovers or friends, is a love between equals, and it demands reciprocity. Oh, of course we attempt to love each other unselfishly, but the reality is such that, if the love is not returned, we don't consider it a true love. With generativity, that expectation of reciprocity isn't as important. The act of creating and leaving the work to be admired, in itself, can be very satisfying to the creator.
Stagnation, on the other hand, is self-absorption, caring for no one. It is a form of depression where reliance on routine and consistency brings normalcy to a lethargic life. The stagnant person ceases to be a productive member of society. A stagnant person cannot imagine and therefor cannot create.
The major moment of self-integration comes, Erikson hypothesized, when the subject achieves durable identity, when the internal sense of self matches the way one is viewed by others in the world. At a certain moment in early adulthood, Erikson suggested, the ego has to become strong enough to resist ''role confusion,'' to map out a life's project and begin enacting it.
The identity crisis, well resolved, inaugurates the time when a person knows that his/her life is real, and that it has begun in earnest. The declaration that, "I am a musician!" or that "I am a painter!" begins the journey of one’s life work..
Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligence
In his seminal work, Frames of Mind, Howard Gardner theorizes about the existence of multiple intelligences. His research into the cognitive sciences
has expanded the way we understand learning and creativity. According to Gardner, everyone possesses at least seven intelligences and each person’s combination of these intelligences creates a unique profile. Gardner believes that human intellectual competence must entail a set of skills for problem solving to acquire new knowledge. He stresses that what is valued in one culture may be diminished in another culture.
The Seven Intelligences
1. Verbal/Linguisitic intelligence is concerned with the use of language. On a sensory level, people with gifts in this area communicate effectively with words, including speaking and writing. They have a deep knowledge of how words affect emotions. This intelligence includes journalists, writers, poets, and playwrights.
2. Musical/Rhythmic intelligence involves appreciating music from all perspectives including singing, dancing, humming, drumming, whistling, composing, and being adventurous with sound. Musicians, conductors, composers, dancers, choreographers, and singers have this gift of intelligence.
3. Logical/Mathematical intelligence incorporates mathematical and scientific abilities. There is giftedness in abstract thinking and using reasoning to interpret the complexities of life. This encompasses many areas of logic including the chemistry of mixing color pigments, application of color with oils, acrylics, and watercolors, and inventing procedural techniques to improve creative skills.
4. Visual/Spatial intelligence involves the unique responsiveness and ability to interpret the visual world. Those gifted with this intelligence transform mental images into spatial information and then recreate this to produce works of art. People with this gift often become photographers, painters, filmmakers, stage set designers, illustrators, fashion designers, potters, sculptors, and architects.
5. Bodily/Kinesthetic intelligence is based on the gift of control of one’s bodily motions and talent to manipulate objects with skills. Although this includes many gross motor activities, like dancing and acrobatics, it also includes fine motor skills such as the techniques of holding a paint brush, cutting paper for collage, and using one’s hands in the creation of ceramics.
6. Intrapersonal intelligence is the ability to understand one’s own feelings. These people instinctively comprehend their emotional capacity, their range of feelings, and then use this information to direct their behavior. Setting limits, lessening distractions, knowing what optimal conditions are essential for creative immersion are part of intrapersonal intelligence.
7. Interpersonal intelligence manifests as a talent for understanding others. People with this gift are keenly aware of "moods, temperaments, motivations, and intentions" (Gardner). Creative collaborations, brainstorming, group exhibits, public art, performance art, and multimedia presentations are all part of interpersonal intelligence.
Gardner groups the seven intelligences into three categories:
The first category, language related intelligences, verbal/linguisitic and musical rhythmic reflect the structure of individual’s language. For example, some linguists consider Japanese to have a very analytical form which enables completion of analytic tasks more easily. The French language is image filled and thinking in image filled pictures help develop verbal and visual capabilities.
The second category is called personal forms (interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences) and reflect the personal vision of self, expectations of others, accepted norms of thinking, and response to cultural pressures. The striving to be authentic and unique comes from this area of intelligence where there are many discordant forces to integrate into one’s sense of self. The desire to innovate and seek public recognition and also to be reclusive and not seek out change is part of the dynamics of the creative process.
The third category is called object related. In this category is the bodily/kinesthetic, visual/spatial, and logical/mathematical intelligences. These types of intelligence involve instrumental thinking, solving a problem or creating a product. How one applies paint to a canvas requires different cognitive skills than what is required in creating a stained glass window.
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Marc Chagall
1887-1985
Marc Chagall was a Russian artist, born on July 7, 1887 and died on March 28, 1985. He generally painted large paintings of Russian village life, Yiddish folklore, and Bible stories. His Jewish heritage and reliance on the shtetl for inspiration and subject matter are often apparent in his works.
Born to a humble Jewish family in the ghetto of a large town in White Russia, Chagall passed a childhood steeped in Hasidic culture.
Very early in life he was encouraged by his mother to follow his vocation and she managed to get him into a St Petersburg art school. Chagall was trained in Saint Petersburg at a relatively young age and came under the influence of Leon Bakst and the Russian ballet.
Returning to Vitebsk, he became engaged to Bella Rosenfeld (whom he married twelve years later), then, in 1910, set off for Paris. He was influenced by Modigliani and Soutine who were both neighbours. He was also influenced by Daumier and Millet, and by the Cubist movement.
In 1914 he moved back to Russia. He married his fiancee, Bella in 1915. He then became Commissar of Fine Arts in his native Vitebsk in 1918 and director of the local art academy in 1919-1920. Later he moved to Moscow, where he designed sets for the Karmerny State Jewish Theater. Chagall moved back to Paris in 1923, but at the suggestion of New York's Museum of Modern Art, he spent World War II in the New York from 1941-1948. During this period, he tried his hand at surrealism, and also designed for the ballet, including Stravinsky's Firebird in 1945.
He settled in the south of France, first at Vence (1950), then in Saint-Paul-de-Vence (1966). Commissions poured in: for the Assy baptistery in 1957, the cathedrals of Metz (1960) and Rheims (1974), the Hebrew University Medical Centre synagogue in Jerusalem (1960), the Paris Op?ra (1963), Israeli Knesset (1966).
Chagall's later work, which had grown strongly religious, includes
At the age of 90 Chagall became the first living artist to be exhibited at the Louvre. His works include paintings, ceramics, sculpture and stained glass.
All his work was entrenched in color. His compositions juxtaposed early memories, symbolism, and imaginary events and provided a radical break
from the formalism traditionally represented in French art.
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Georgia O’Keeffe:
(1887-1986)
Born in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, to Francis Calyxtus O'Keeffe and Ida (Totto) O'Keeffe, O'Keeffe spent her childhood years on the family's 600-acre dairy farm. She made her first drawings while attending parochial schools in Wisconsin and Virginia.
O'Keeffe studied at the school of the Art Institute of Chicago during 1905-1906. She then attended classes at the Art Students League from 1907-1908.
Her mentors included William Merritt Chase, F. Luis Mora, and Kenyon Cox.
In the autumn of 1908, O'Keeffe moved to Chicago to work as a commercial artist. She initially supported herself by drawing lace and embroidery for advertisements. However, in 1910, her eyesight began to suffer due to contracting measles, as a result, she gave up her commercial work and relocated with her family to Charlottesville, Virginia.
In 1912, O’Keeffe visited Alon Bement's art classes at the University of Virginia. She was introduced to the artistic theories of Arthur Wesley Dow, a painter and printmaker whose style was influenced by Oriental art and saturation of color. During this period, she relocated to Amarillo, Texas where she was employed as an art teacher.
In 1914 she returned to New York to study with Arthur Dow at Columbia Teachers College. He became a n important mentor to her and strongly influenced her life’s work.
In 1915, O'Keeffe produced a series of abstract charcoal drawings and watercolors inspired by her studying with Arthur Wesley Dow. In 1916, her friend Anita Pollitzer brought them to the attention of the gallery owner and photographer Alfred Stieglitz. He gave O'Keeffe her first solo exhibition at his avant-garde gallery, 291, in 1917.
Steigletz was part of an inner circle of avant-garde artists. He served as benefactor and curator for several artists including Arthur Wesley Dove, Marsden Hartley, John Marin and Paul Strand.
O’Keeffe’s relationship with Stieglitz expanded during this time (1918). She modeled for him and several exquiiste photographic images were produced through this collaboration. Critics have said that these nude images are some of the most remarkable portraits in the history of American photography. Steigletz exhibited her work and provided her with subsidies so she could paint. In 1924, they married in Cliffside Park, New Jersey.
O'Keeffe’s work during this period was inspired by her living in Manhatten and summer trips to Lake George. By 1924, she began painting close-ups of flowers which were controversial as sexual metaphors.
O'Keeffe made her first visit to New Mexico in 1929. She loved the terrain and desert and visited and painted in Taos each summer. Stieglitz died in 1946 and in 1949 she settled permanently in Abiquiu, forty miles from Taos.
Her work expanded during her widowhood and living in New Mexico. She painted canyons, mountains, bones of animals, and churches frequently.
During the 1970s, in her eighth decade as macular degneration affected her visual capacity, she began working in clay. She produced hand-crafted pots that echoed the simplified shapes found in her paintings.
Prior to settling in New Mexico, O'Keeffe had retrospective exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum (1927), the Art Institute of Chicago (1943) and the Museum of Modern Art in New York (1946). She had also been elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters. Important retrospectives of her work were organized in 1960 (Worcester Art Museum), 1966 (Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas) and 1970 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York). Rediscovered by the women's movement of the 1970s, O'Keeffe went on to reap additional awards and honors including the National Institute of Arts and Letters gold medal for painting (1970), an honorary degree from Harvard University (1973), and the Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor, awarded by President Gerald Ford in 1979.
Georgia O'Keeffe died in Santa Fe in 1986. One year later, the centennial of her birth was commemorated by a major retrospective exhibition organized by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
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"There is nothing more difficult for a truly creative painter
than to paint a rose, because before he can do so he has first
to forget all the roses that were ever painted." - Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse was born in December of 1869 in Le Cateau, France. In 1887, he was sent to Paris to study law. But it was not until he was nearly 19, that he began to take a serious interest in art. Working as a lawyer's clerk in St Quentin, he attended early morning drawing classes at the Ecole Quentin de la Tour, working assiduously from plaster casts between 6:30 and 7:30 am each day. But it was when he was recuperating from appendicitis the following year that he took up painting, and it came as a revelation to him. He recalled later, "When I started to paint, I felt transported into a kind of paradise....In everyday life, I was usually bored and vexed by the things that people were always telling me I must do. Starting to paint, I felt gloriously free, quiet and alone."
In 1891, Matisse moved to Paris to study art. In 1892, he became an unofficial student at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts under the aegis of Gustave Moreau. Moreau was a liberal and open-minded teacher, who encouraged his students to follow their own paths and to paint right from the start of the course to develop their gifts as colorists. He not only urged Matisse to copy Old Masters in the Louvre, but also to go into the streets and draw, taking his subject-matter from everyday life. Matisse made close friends in Moreau's studio, among them, Albert Marquet, who joined Matisse in "creating" Fauvism some five years later.
In 1898 at age 29, he married Amelie Parayre, whom he had met a few months before at a wedding. Jean was born in 1899, Pierre, in 1900 . Amelie modeled for him for several years.
He was the leader of the Fauves, a group of artists whose style emphasized intense color and vigorous brushstrokes. He believed the arrangement of colors was as important as a painting's subject matter to communicate meaning. He avoided detail, instead using bright color and strong lines to create a sense of movement. In 1905, works by Matisse and other Fauve painters were exhibited together. The bold forms and bright colors of these paintings shocked the Paris art world. The paintings caused a furor. They were described as "pictorial aberrations" and "unspeakable fantasies", and the painters themselves were labeled, "fauves" or "wild beasts", because of the "savage" use of color.
From 1916, Matisse began to spend the winter months at Nice on the Riviera. Apart from the availability of many attractive Mediterranean models, the warm sunshine and light inspired many of his paintings and collages. For the rest of his life, Matisse spent most of his winters in Nice - moving from one hotel to another, painting, rowing and playing the violin.
By 1921, Matisse began to gain official recognition. That year, The French government purchased one of his paintings, and examples of his work began to enter major public collections all over the world. In 1925, he was created a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. For many years, Matisse had suffered from the backlash of the Fauvist episode, which saw him branded as "loathsome", "abnormal" and "degenerate". This characterization of Matisse was entirely at odds with his true nature. He was not a passive or tranquil man and suffered continual anxiety about his art. But in his outward behavior, he was quiet, amiable and modest.
The next major landmark in Matisse's life, was his introduction to the Stein family. Leo, Michael and their more famous sister, Gertude, were among the most adventurous collectors of the day - and during the next few years they bought many of Matisse's most controversial works. The Steins also introduced him to a circle of enlightened individuals who appreciated innovation and color.
In 1937, he designed the scenery and costumes for a production of Shostakovich's Le Rouge et le Noir by the Ballets Russes of Monte Carlo. The following year, he began working extensively in cut paper or gouache decoupee.
By 1939, Matisse was becoming increasingly anxious about the uncertain climate as war was about to break out. He was separated from his wife and was diagnosed as having duodenal cancer . By the age of 72, he had two major operations and was permanently confined to a wheelchair. He was looked after by Lydia Delektorskaya, the young Russian model he had painted in the 1930s, who had become his muse, confidante and companion. Matisse had acquired a suite in the palatial Hotel Regina ai Nice, where he returned to convalesce - but continued working, even from his bed: he fixed charcoal onto long poles and drew on the walls and ceiling.
As the Italians advanced on Nice, Matisse moved to the nearby hill town of Vence. It was here that he was persuaded by one of his ex-models, now a nun, to undertake the most important project of his last years - the decoration of the Chapel of the Rosary. By the time the chapel was consecrated in 1951, Matisse was too frail to attend the ceremony. Three years later, he died peacefully at Nice, on 3 November 1954, aged 84.
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