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 painters but also of important sculptors, poets, novelists, and movie directors, Old Masters and Young Geniuses offers a profound new understanding of artistic creativity. Using a wide range of evidence, David Galenson demonstrates that there are two fundamentally different approaches to innovation, and that each is associated with a distinct pattern of discovery over a lifetime.

Experimental innovators work by trial and error, and arrive at their major contributions gradually, late in life. In contrast, conceptual innovators make sudden breakthroughs by formulating new ideas, usually at an early age. Galenson shows why such artists as Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Cézanne, Jackson Pollock, Virginia Woolf, Robert Frost, and Alfred Hitchcock were experimental old masters, and why Vermeer, van Gogh, Picasso, Herman Melville, James Joyce, Sylvia Plath, and Orson Welles were conceptual young geniuses. He also explains how this changes our understanding of art and its past.

Experimental innovators seek, and conceptual innovators find. By illuminating the differences between them, this pioneering book provides vivid new insights into the mysterious processes of human creativity.

Customer Reviews:

Clarifying 2 Modes of Artistic Creativity........2007-04-06

This book would be of interest to artists and collectors. Enjoy. I couldn't put it down.

valuable contribution.......2007-01-14

As a creative artists who moves in slow incremental steps-searching, exploring, and experimenting-, I am much gratified to have Galenson's positive take on my plodding nature. It is the unknown that draws me forward (the experimental), not the laborious execution of a well thought-out scheme (the conceptual).
I have studied art and art history my entire life and Galenson has given me my first ever clear understanding of 'conceptual' art. I realize now that my own methods have little in common with most conceptual artists, much more in common with the 'experimental' artists of which he writes.
I find it quite refreshing and commendable that an Economics professor who comes from outside the insular field of art has delved so successfully into the minds of artists. Shouldn'd we all take more than a moment to step outside our own fields, get a fresh perspective on the world around us, and thus, on ourselves?
Kudos to professor Galenson for doing such a fine job of expanding our understanding of the creative mind, and for taking the risk to have a look from the outside.

A new perspective.......2006-12-17

Dr. Galenson takes up an aspect of creativity that I have not encountered before: what accounts for the timing of an artist's success within his own developmental cycle. His explanation for the division he makes is persuasive both intellectually and on the basis of the data he presents. Having said that, his dualism arouses my distrust. I was hoping he might have more to say about an artist's development over time. Why do some artist's peak early and others ripen, apart from the nature of their innovation? Can old masters be geniuses too? Are there art forms that require mature development for success? What role does an artist's character play in the curve of his development? Perhaps I expected too much in one book. As a writer on the psychology of creativity, I am glad to have read this book.
Gregory T. Lombardo, MD, PhD.

Amazon.com

The title, Baby Owner's Manual, suggests the promise and the problem of this cheeky and comprehensive guide written by a pediatrician and his son. First-time parents who are not offended by the observation that "babies, unlike other appliances, lack instruction manuals," will find a rich resource of facts and advice. The book is divided into seven categories of "operating instructions" including home installation, feeding and power supply, sleep mode, maintenance, development, and safety. Complete with witty schematic drawings and charts, the authors answer hundreds of questions about breastfeeding, bed, bath, and beyond. While most manuals focus on tender loving care, the authors chose to focus on baby as technology. The result is a highly useful--almost too cool--reference book. Because every parent knows that babies are messier and more rewarding than this approach imagines. --Barbara Mackoff

Book Description

It s the answer to every new parent s first question: Doesn t this thing come with an owner s manual? At long last, yes!
Through step-by-step instructions and helpful schematic diagrams, The Baby Owner s Manual explores the common concerns of every first-time parent: What s the best way to swaddle a baby? How can I make my newborn sleep through the night? When should I bring the baby to a doctor for servicing? Whatever your question, you ll find the answer here courtesy of celebrated pediatrician Dr. Louis Borgenicht and his son, Joe Borgenicht. Together, they provide plenty of useful advice for anyone who wants to learn the basics of childcare.

Customer Reviews:

Great Shower Gift .......2007-03-08

I've given this book as a gift for the last few baby showers I've gone to. My one friend told me that they used this book more than any other during the first few months. It's a helpful book, small so it can travel around easily. Plus it's funny to read through it as if your baby is a car. Great for the Dad since it's written in terms they are used to.
At first when I bought it I thought, oh what a great gag gift. I'm glad it turned out to be helpful to the parents as well.

Great little hand book!.......2007-02-08

As a first time mom who doesn't like to read pages and pages of information, I found this book to be a great quick-reference, packed with a wealth of information... from breastfeeding positions to things you'll need for the arrival of your baby (there are lots of diagrams). I love the book so much, I have bought copies for friends of mine who are also expecting.
At first appearance, the book seems like a joke on having a baby. Really, it's just a smart, refreshing way of presenting the information. Highly recommended!

Tongue-in-cheek book for the technically oriented.......2007-01-13

Some people find babies to be like aliens. Everyone knows they are people, but since they are infants ("infans" from the Latin for "without language/speechless"), they can't tell you what's exactly wrong. Some people are technically oriented like my husband and are great troubleshooters -- this book is for them.

I'm giving this book only four stars because I think Be Prepared (a book for new dads) is a more entertaining and more informative read, and deserves a five-star rating.

Great for Dads- Reads like an old car manual.......2007-01-07

This was given to my husband (who is an engineer) and he loves it. Since receiving it we have given it to friends who are expecting and they like it too.

Entertaining and informative.......2007-01-05

I've bought this book for the last three friends of mine that have had babies and they all love it. It looks like a joke, sort of like a car or appliance manual, but it actually has a tremendous amount of practical advice for new parents. I even have another friend that's put her request in for the same thing when she gets pregnant.

The Baby Owner's Manual 2006 Calendar: Operating Instructions, Trouble-Shooting tips, and Advice on first-Year Maintenance

Average customer rating:

Great!

The Baby Owner's Manual 2006 Calendar: Operating Instructions, Trouble-Shooting tips, and Advice on first-Year Maintenance
Louis, M.D. Borgenicht , and Joe Borgenicht
Manufacturer: Meadwestvaco
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Calendar

General | Calendars | Book Accessories | Our Favorites | Gift Ideas
ASIN: 0768869951

Customer Reviews:

Great!.......2006-11-08

A very funny look at babies...I actually used several of their suggestions when caring for my first-born!

Book Description

Using the same mix of snappy prose, accessibility, and insider knowledge that he employed so successfully in omplicated Women,Mick LaSalle now turns his attention to the men of the pre-Code Hollywood era. Highlighting such household names as James Cagney, Clark Gable, and Gary Cooperand lesser-known ones such as Lee Tracy and Richard BarthelmessLaSalle shows how conceptsof manhood and heroism changed as the talkies came in and the Great Depression took hold. The smiling, confident hero of previous years fell out of favor, and new heroes emerged: gangsters, opportunists, sleazy businessmen, shifty lawyers, and shell-shocked soldiers. They were men whose existence threatened the system.

Customer Reviews:

One Mistake.......2006-02-07

I wish I could have given this book 5 stars, but Mr. LaSalle had made a minor mistake. In the book's first chapter, he made the mistake of comparing most of the major actors of this era - especially Clark Gable - to the recent film star, Tom Cruise. In some attempt to put Cruise at a disadvantage, he described the actor as being "amiable" and youthful in compare to Gable. One, Cruis is more than an "amiable" actor. He has made a career of portraying some rather ambiguous and/or dark characters during the past twenty-five years. And two, he stopped being youthful a long time ago. I think that Mr. LaSalle may have been blinded by Cruise's famous smile and failed to give a more accurate portrayal of the actor's career.

Those Pre Code Females!.......2006-01-29

Mick LaSalle has done a fine job in recording the accomplishments of actresses before the pre code "censorship" era (1929-1934 or thereabouts!) . If you are at all interested
in films of the thirties this is a MUST! And if you are just interested in films in general this will surely be "of interest". And if you are a Norma Shearer fan it is a MUST!

ANOTHER GREAT BOOK.......2003-08-31

It's a toss-up as to which of Mick LaSalle's great pre-Code books (his previous is COMPLICATED WOMEN) is superior. COMPLICATED WOMEN is a work of advocacy, in a sense -- he wants to rescue the women of pre-Code from obscurity and critical neglect, and he does so ably. This book is more cool-headed amd critical. It's also funnier. It feels more grounded in the real politics and culture of the early 1930s. The research goes deeper. The book is longer. I think they're both essential reading, demonstrating a passion for film and an understanding of history that's impressive, rare and indispensable.

Greatness before the Censors Came.......2003-04-02

The Golden Age of movies is sometimes taken as the glorious silent era. However, it can be argued that the films made right after the advent of sound provided more realism and more to think about than movies before or since. In a vital and entertaining study, _Dangerous Men: Pre-Code Hollywood and the Birth of the Modern Man_ (Thomas Dunne), Mick LaSalle lovingly analyzes the films and movie heroes from around 1929 until 1934 when censorship took over. Those interested in the history of film, and in learning more about giants like Cagney and Gable, as well as about important but forgotten former stars like Richard Barthelmess and Warren William, will find this book irresistible. After 1934, it was a long while before American films were made without a censor able to clip scenes, and LaSalle demonstrates that the pre-censorship (or "pre-Code") era was a time for realism as well as idealism in the movies.

LaSalle demonstrates that silent films were really productions of the Victorian era; men were expected to have sobriety and character. World War I, Prohibition, and the Great Depression changed all that. There was a deluge of pre-Code gangster movies, and every major actor played a gangster, even Spencer Tracy and Boris Karloff. The gangster movies, and the war movies, provided a new look at how a person might live in the world and live with himself; there was a good deal of introspection within the characters displayed on screen that would vanish when the Code came into force. Along with serious evaluation of such moral matters, pre-Code movies were full of pacifism. Repeatedly the young idealistic heroes go into battle only to be shocked at the destruction they themselves have wrought. These movies exalted individuality and distrust of governments that led citizens into pointless wars. Pre-Code films emphasized the heroism of getting wise and taking care of oneself, not the heroism of battles and bugles. There is a good brief history of Code censorship here, showing the role of the Catholic Legion of Decency and its regrettable effects. Not only did the Code enforcers impose wholesomeness on future movies, they insisted that when the pre-Code films were re-released they be re-cut into more acceptable form. Sadly, sometimes the censored version of a pre-Code film is all that remains. It was not until the ratings system came in 1968 that the Code was dismantled.

Partly LaSalle's book is a warning, and one especially pointed now that certain forces within the government find censorship in various forms appealing. LaSalle has enormous admiration for the films described here, but says, "Even vitality such as this can be squelched if a close-minded faction is obsessed, pernicious, and willing to organize." He has seen a lot more of these pre-Code pictures than his readers have, but anyone who enjoys the movies will be eager to take a look at these films after reading this book. Pre-Code films showed war brutality, governmental corruption, and harnessing courage to subvert the system. LaSalle writes, "These may be healthy things for individuals to know, but they aren't what governments like to see pumped into the public consciousness."

Favorite Book of the Year?.......2003-01-03

I guess it's too early to have a favorite book of the year, but I can say with certainty that, had I completed it in 2002, Dangerous Men would qualify as one of my top two or three -- and probably the best non-fiction book I've read: So smart, so authoritative and, as some other readers have pointed out, so funny -- funny, even as you're learning something fascinating on every page.
It is hardly the usual sort of film book. Rather it's a brilliant investigation into the nature of manhood in the twentieth century, using these films as markers along the way. At the same time, it is a movie book in the sense that you come away dying to see the movies. I'm going to be using the list that the book provides to help make my video choices in the coming months.
What a wonderful Christmas gift. I already ordered Complicated Women, because now I can't get enough of the subject. You'll probably feel the same way, too. By all means, this is a book to get.

Dangerous Men Pre-Code Hollywood and the Birth of the Modern Man

Average customer rating:

Dangerous Men Pre-Code Hollywood and the Birth of the Modern Man
LaSalle Mick
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000UIRHTO

Average customer rating:

Dangerous Men: Pre-Code Hollywood and the Birth of the Modern Man
Mick LaSalle
Manufacturer: Thomas Dunne Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OTLPEM

Book Description

This collection of essays on electroacoustic music explores the creative possibilities to be found in various forms of musical analysis. Taking pitch, duration, intensity, and timbre as the four basic elements of music, the authors discuss electroacoustic works. In this analysis, they examine the applications of neumes, contemporary staff notation, Csound orchestra and score files, time-domain representations, and spectrograms. They take into consideration both the positive (preservation of the abstract) and negative (creative limitation) aspects of these analytical methods. This text contains extensive artwork serving as demonstration, as well as a DVD with sound and video clips.

Book Description

At the age of 17, David McCumber was stricken with "road fever" that irresistible call to the itinerant life of a professional gambler. Twenty-two years later, he got the chance to follow that dream-not as a player but as the "stakehorse" (financial backer) for Tony Annigoni, a non-smoking, macrobiotic-eating "Renaissance Pool Hustler," student of Eastern religion, and master of the pure green-felt poetry of the dead stroke." With $27,000 in David's pocket they took off together on an astonishing four-month odyssey across America-traveling from seedy, hole-in-the-wall billiard parlors to high-class snooker rooms to high-tension pro tourneys, from Seattle to Miami and back again-exploring a shady twilight subculture and uniquely American mythos, in search of serious money, local glory...and the perfect hustle.

Customer Reviews:

A very real look at pool, gambling, and life itself.......2005-08-03

Written by one who has a very keen eye. The reader enjoys going along on the road with Tony Annigoni, and author McCumber not knowing what the pair will encounter at their next stop. Well written, detailed, and strong. You will forever remember what the inside of poolrooms look like, even though you've never set foot inside them in life. The author is exceptional at describing deceptive, talented opponents and the challenge one faces when, on the road playing nine ball for large amounts of cash on their turf. While it may hold more value to those familiar with pool, or gambling, the book reveals the backrounds of the cast, and why they so love the game.

A primer on hustling, sharking, and gamesmanship........2005-07-05

This was an excellent book! In short, it was everything I would want to do and be if I could (time, money, and opportunity being a hindrance). I play a lot of pool and this book is a true account of what that could amount to. I like nonfiction and this is why. All the drama, hardship and reward are real and not contrived or created. Follow two guys on the road to huslting in the world of pocket billiards. Outstanding!

great book.......2005-06-09

I love reading nonfiction books that are about pool hustling. I've read a couple of them already like hustler days, which was a great book, mcgoorty a poolroom hustler also good, but Playing off the rail a pool hustlers journey is without a doubt my favorite book, i highly recommend this book to anyone who like's pool, and like's too read about life on the road as a pool hustler.

makes you want to play.......2004-02-28

This is without a doubt the most fun I've had reading a book about pool. I couldn't put it down, and I finished it in about two days.

About a true life story, this book just makes you want to play. There are some really funny momments in the books with some of the characters. Eventhough I'll probably never play that good, it just made me want to play.

If you're looking for a really fun read that will revitalize your interest in the game this is the one.

Just Ho-Hum.......2003-12-12

Although some of the situations were strange and funny, the story just seemed to wander along to an uneventful ending. I know this was real life on the road, but the author failed to keep my interest in the flow of the story.

PLAYING OFF THE RAIL: A Pool Hustler's Journey

Average customer rating:

PLAYING OFF THE RAIL: A Pool Hustler's Journey
David McCumber
Manufacturer: RH
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000TVZ6UY

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