Dear colleagues,

 

I was asked to share the findings to my question on “late-blooming artists” and am happy to do so.

 

Below is a synopsis of the responses. Many responses suggested that artists beginning their careers later in life are, many times, "self-taught" or possibly "outside artists." Suggested search and subject heading terms included: “Art Brut,” “older artists,” and “creative ability in old age.”

 

Names of artists who started their careers later in life:

 

Eddie Arning

Esther Barugel

Jean Dubuffet

William Edmondson

Howard Finster

Rosalie Gascoigne

William Hawkins

Clementine Hunter

Pat and Rosemarie Keough

Harry Lieberman

Gertrude Morgan

Grandma Moses

J. B. Murray

Grandmas Prisbey

Martin Ramirez

Simon Rodia

Henri Rousseau

Kay Sage

Jon Serl

Bill Traylor

Joseph Yoakam

 

Suggested institutions:

 

The American Visionary Art Museum

800 Key Highway

Baltimore, MD 21230

(410) 244-1900

http://www.avam.org/

 

The American Folk Art Museum

45 West 53rd Street

New York NY 10019

(212) 265-1040

http://www.folkartmuseum.org/

 

Suggested resources:

 

Galenson, David W. The life cycles of modern artists (Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, c2002).

 

_____. Painting outside the lines: patterns of creativity in modern art (Cambridge, Mass.; London: Harvard University Press, 2001. (http://chronicle.uchicago.edu/020124/quantifyingart.shtml)

 

Kaufman, Barbara Wahl and Barrett, Didi. A Time to Reap: Late Blooming Folk Artists (exhibition catalog). (South Orange, NJ: Seton Hall University; New York: Museum of American Folk Art, 1985.)  [Exhibition featured 51 American self-taught artists, including Grandma Moses.]

 

Maresca, Frank  et al. American self-taught: paintings and drawings by outsider artists (New York: Knopf, 1993)

 

McLeish, John A. B. Creativity in the later years: an annotated bibliography (New York: Garland Pub., c1992).

 

Rosenak, Chuck and Rosenak, Jan. Museum of American Folk Art encyclopedia of twentieth-century American folk art and artists (New York: Abbeville Press, 1990).

 

Please let me know if you have any questions. Again, thank you everyone!

 

Traci