Okay, so things are at a static spot right now, so I can return to my usual blather, last week’s joyous grab bag of news notwithstanding.
So–last weekend my friend came to visit, and we headed to the Met to see, among other things, the American Woman exhibit (Oh. My. God. Amazing).
When we were done with that, we headed to the Picasso exhibit; the exhibit features 300 works by Picasso (!), and shows his work changing through the years. I know I’m not uttering anything profound, but man, Picasso was one talented-ass dude.
Which led me to this epiphany: There aren’t very many artists who can continue to grow and change as they develop and master their art. Usually, an artist comes out of the box with a bang and then does the same piece of art, only watered down, for his or her ensuing career (see: Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Gang of Four, James Ellroy, Patricia Cornwell, ER, Scooby-Doo with Scrappy, Transformers, etc.).
BUT when you find someone who continues to grow, and change, and develop? Incredible. For example, this week I am reading Jim Butcher‘s Turn Coat, the 11th book in the Dresden Files series. Wow. It is way more complex and intriguing than Storm Front, the first book, which was recommended to me by a book blogger reviewer a gazillion years ago (she is on hiatus for the best reason: A new addition to her family! Yay!).
There are other authors who improve and grow as they “hone their craft” (which, as a romance writer, sounds vaguely dirty). I’d like to think–and hope–that I will be better in a few years than I am now, and I think I’m better now than I used to be.
The essential element, for me, is never being too vain or confident to think I can’t learn something. Apparently Picasso was vain and confident, but also observed and incorporated other artists’ trends and talents into his own work. Like a shark, an artist has to keep moving to stay alive. Or will end up watered down (or, in the shark’s case, a watery grave).
Who has gotten better with age? What other artists jumped the shark (so to speak–completely accidental punnage, I promise!)
Megan, I read your post and the first example that came into my mind was Stravinsky who changed styles and voice quite brilliantly throughout his career.
I think Austen would have gone in different directions too, possibly writing more books like Mansfield Park.
And then there’s Dickens who churned them out like nobody’s business.
I tell myself all the time that I’m getting better with age, like a cheese.
I might take a slight exception to using Paul McCartney as an artist who didn’t evolve. Although his most iconic music was during the glory days of the Beatles, he did keep producing music, some of it as good as his early stuff. And he scored a Bond movie, Live and Let Die and even tried his hand at symphony. The Guiness Book of World Records states he is the most successful songwriter in history.
And, of course, he won the Library of Congress’s Gershwin Award for popular music this week.
Whether a person likes McCartney’s music is a matter of taste, but I think he certainly hasn’t been producing the same watered down work.
And I have the I Love Paul button to prove it!!!
(And I’m in deep envy at your being able to see those exhibits!)
I agree with you completely when it comes to Jim Butcher’s work. I’ve been a fan of the Dresden Files from the beginning and he just seems to get better and better with each book.
And I agree with you, Janet, about Stravinsky. I’ve been privileged to perform quite a bit of his vocal music and the metamorphosis of his style when writing for the voice has been a real lesson to me. His Vier Letzte Leider (Four Last Songs) is perhaps one of the most amazing and poignant song cycles I’ve ever performed.
I do like to go back and read historical romance writers’ backlists to see how their style has changed and grown over the years. It puts my own stuff in perspective!
Malcolm Gladwell had an interesting article about this in The New Yorker at some point in the past year. His point was that not all artists (whether literary or in the visual arts) burst on the scene and then burned out as they aged. He cited Monet as an example of an artist who continued to get better as he got older.
I think Peter Gabriel has kept his integrity and then some.
On the “jumped the shark” side is Gilmore Girls. IMO one of the best-written shows on TV, penned by a woman, and then it all went kerflooey somewhere in season 5. Season 6 is a disaster and Season 7 is just wrong.
As far as my own artistic growth goes, I dunno. I’m still waiting to bloom.
Megan describes it well, how some of the better creative output come early in careers, and that some sucessful artists repeat somewhat their earlier forms. However some artists don’t conform to that pattern. How about Paul Simon? He always sounds like Paul Simon, but the recordings are different. Matisse’s career was long, his famous paper cutouts came late and are different from the canvases. Frank Lloyd Wright’s best known building was his last(?), the Guggenheim Museum in NYC. He had different phases in his long career, and famous buildings throughout. MOMA has a Henri Cartier Breson career retrospective show. Many of his most reproduced images are pre WWII, put his later magazine photojournalism is very good.
Both photography and architecture had huge tech evolutions in the 20th cen. Wright and Bresson took advantage of these, creating things not possible in earlier decades. Novels have not evolved as much by comparison.
I totally agree about Picasso, Megan, and had much the same response when we visited the fabulous collection of his work at the Berggruen Museum in Berlin a few years ago. Totally inspired to try to stay fresh and open.
Other artists? You’d have to say Shakespeare. My husband says Yeats. If he’d lived to be older, maybe Stanley Kubrick.
And yes, definitely Jane Austen, who invented both the popular romance novel AND the just-plain-novel-as-we-know it in her first act (first 3 books), went on to experiment audaciously with the novel form in her second (Emma has a lot in common with the modern detective story), and was into something new again with Sanditon in her tragically uncompleted third act.
I’d like to bet a little money on Joss Whedon.
Definitely Paul Simon! His lyrics grew from the rather heavy-handed “Silence like a cancer grows.” to the amazing poetry of his song, “You Can Call Me Al.”
Hey Megan, are you attending the Renegade Craft Fair in McCarren Park today? Looks fun.