The End: Artists' Late and Last Works

Description

When is a work of art finished? Can it be complete in a mental sense? And who decides? In this highly original and wide-ranging study, Carel Blotkamp explores the concept and manifestations of 'the end' in art. From the idea of a mortal end to the notion of completeness, Blotkamp describes a fascinating array of historical facts and myths as well as novels on art and artists. He examines the value of the last works of artists, considering how a particular end came about and how that might affect our perception of the work; the difference in the styles of artists in old age; unfinished last works and those completed by another's hand; and the mythology inherent in the reception of last works, taking the last works of Raphael and Mondrian as prime examples. For students, artists and art enthusiasts looking for a new perspective on modern art, The End is the perfect place to start.

Carel Blotkamp is Professor Emeritus of the History of Modern Art at Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam and a well-known authority on Mondrian and De Stijl. He is the author of Mondrian: The Art of Destruction (Reaktion, 2001).

"Blotkamp discerns late style in Claude Monet, Pierre Bonnard, Max Beckmann, Alberto Giacometti, Lucian Freud, and Louise Bourgeois--artists who kept innovating over long lives. Others--Blotkamp suggests Georges Braque, Marc Chagall, Salvador Dali, Max Ernst--seem either to exhaust themselves or to veer from the aerie of lateness into the lower realms of the predictable, old-fashioned, and, perish the thought, commercial. . . . Late style may be the visual expression of what it feels like to face the end--or it may be nothing more than a critic's fantasy, a by-product of our hunger for hidden meanings, narrative closure, and valedictory statements. More likely, it is both at once: the subjective expression of an artist, viewed subjectively."--Max Norman "New Yorker"