Behind Every Great Piece of Art, There is Often a 20-Year-Old

Sometimes it feels like you have to be in your 20s to make great art.

Spanish artist Pablo Picasso was under 30 when he created Cubism. American artist Jasper Johns painted his American flag when he was 25. And Austrian painter Egon Schiele was dead by the age of 28 and had already created a body of work that remains the definitive example of genius.

A new show at the Neue Galerie highlights Schiele's portraits. And another exhibit surveys Brooklyn's young talent: "Crossing Brooklyn: Art from Bushwick, Bed-Stuy and Beyond" is at the Brooklyn Museum.

In this interview, art critic Deborah Solomon said she believes Schiele’s show is an example of the best that a young artist can offer. She explained his great subject was eroticism and the human body. “He believed art was sexy before it was anything else,” she said. “He is an artist who lived fully in the moment, who was obsessed with eroticism and death and whose work was a great shock to the provincial morality of his time.”

EGON SCHIELE (1890-1918), Self-Portrait with Peacock Waistcoat, Standing, 1911

(Ernst Ploil, Vienna)

“Crossing Brooklyn,” on the other hand, shows that young artists can also disappoint, according to Solomon. She said one of the problem is that most of the artists in the show try to interact with the viewer, crossing into social work. “Many of the works feel like therapy,” said Solomon, mentioning examples like a piece by Heather Hart, where you are invited to submit recipes. Or another called "D.A.T.," or Department of Accumulated Thoughts, by artist collective Tatlo, which documents residents' thoughts. 

“The work really feels like I am OK, you are OK, compared with Egon Schiele’s radical experiments,” she said. “Radicalism is dead.”

Solomon said she believes most artists tend to make their best work before they are 30, because at that age they have little to lose. “They have a level of imaginative freedom that you often don’t find in older artists,” she said. But she believes older artists can be extremely creative too, like the Matisse’s Cut-Outs show at the Museum of Modern Art proves.

Do you think being young makes you more creative? Join the discussion below.

Nobutaka Aozaki (Japan, b. 1977). Smiley Bag Portrait, 2011. Part of the "Crossing Brooklyn" show.

(Courtesy of the artist. ©Nobutaka Aozaki. Photo: Yuriko Katori)

EGON SCHIELE (1890-1918), Wally in Red Blouse with Raised Knees, 1913

(Private Collection)

Brendan Fernandes (Canadian, b. Kenya, 1979), part of the "Crossing Brooklyn" show.

(Courtesy of the artist. © Brendan Fernandes. Photo: Erika Neola and Brendan Beecy)