Why read Old Masters and Young Geniuses?

Book cover of Old Masters and Young Geniuses: The Two Life Cycles of Artistic Creativity

Book description

When in their lives do great artists produce their greatest art? Do they strive for creative perfection throughout decades of painstaking and frustrating experimentation, or do they achieve it confidently and decisively, through meticulous planning that yields masterpieces early in their lives? By examining the careers not only of great…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Old Masters and Young Geniuses as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Carl Nordgren

Author

How do creative people produce their best work? That’s the question Galenson researched as an economics professor leading to this book comparing the two major creative approaches he’s identified: Do they create by just getting started and through incremental efforts and continuous testing they feel their way until they discover what they will create? Or do they begin with careful and comprehensive plans of what they will create, beginning only when they are confident they have a full vision of what the end looks like? He studied artists—painters and poets, novelists and sculptors—but the questions he asks and the answers…

From Carl's list on The best books for appreciating your natural creatively entrepreneurial genius.