Two old masters and a young genius: the creativity of Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, and Jean-Michel Basquiat

Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, and Jean-Michel Basquiat were key figures in the resurgence of expressive figurative painting in the late twentieth century. All three made personal visual art, drawing their subjects from among the people and things they cared most about. Yet they worked in very differe...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of cultural economics Vol. 47; no. 3; pp. 489 - 511
Main Authors Galenson, David W., Lenzu, Simone
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York Springer US 01.09.2023
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Age
Arts
Auctions
Careers
Creativity
Cultural Economics
Economic Policy
Economics
Economics and Finance
Life cycles
Microeconomics
Music
Original Article
Painters
Paints
Premature mortality
Regional and Cultural Studies
Statistical significance
Lucian Freud
Experimental innovator
Age-price profiles
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Francis Bacon
Conceptual innovator
Personal visual art
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, and Jean-Michel Basquiat were key figures in the resurgence of expressive figurative painting in the late twentieth century. All three made personal visual art, drawing their subjects from among the people and things they cared most about. Yet they worked in very different ways, toward very different goals. This paper considers how their differing motivations and methods resulted in radically differing life cycles of creativity, measured both by auction market outcomes and by the judgments of art scholars. The experimental art of Bacon and Freud developed gradually and produced masterpieces late in their long lives, whereas the conceptual Basquiat made his most innovative art well before his premature death.
ISSN:0885-2545
1573-6997
DOI:10.1007/s10824-023-09476-9