What Was Old Is New Again: Tackling Ageism in the Contemporary Art World

In Retrospect, Curtis Patterson. Image Courtesy of Adam Kuehl

The art world has always been focused on youth. Michelangelo started getting paid for his work as an apprentice when he was 14 years old in 1489 and began creating remarkable marble reliefs, which have since stood the test of time, for the Medici family the following year. Hurdling ahead to modern times, Pablo Picasso began his celebrated Blue Period at 20 in 1901 and painted the enigmatic Les Demoiselles d’Avignon – one of the most iconic artworks of the modernist era – when he was just 25. And – bringing us up to the contemporary period – Jean-Michel Basquiat, who was tagging the streets of New York with catchy slogans while still a teen, became one of the youngest artists to participate in a Whitney Biennial at the ripe age of 22 in 1983.

The year before Basquiat turned the tide for better acknowledgment of artists of color at the Whitney Museum of American Art, 70-year-old Louise Bourgeois was breaking ground for both older artists and women artists at the Museum of Modern Art. Underknown at the time of her MoMA survey show in 1982, Bourgeois paved the way for dealers and collectors to take a deeper look at mature, developed artists who didn’t fit the existing trends – thus they were often overlooked and sometimes considered past their prime.

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