Time is rough on a lot of life pursuits. Athletes dwindle. Dancers pull tendons. Politicians? It varies. But artists, if they work it right, they ripen. Here’s Hokusai, the great Japanese painter famous for his Thirty Six Views of Mount Fuji, in the mid-1830s, puffing out his chest: “Nothing I did before the age of 70 was worthy of attention. At 73, I began to grasp the structures of birds and beasts, insects and fish, and of the way plants grow. If I go on trying, I will surely understand them still better by the time I am 86, so that by 90 I will have penetrated to their essential nature. At 100, I may well have a positively divine understanding of them, while at 130, 140, or more I will have reached the stage where every dot and every stroke I paint will be alive.”
Hokusai didn’t see 140, but he got to 89, and produced some of his best work in later life. That’s not surprising. While art history is full of greats who died early, the truth is that people who make careers of their creative urges more commonly live into a productive old age. For every Raphael or Van Gogh who disappeared in his 30s, there are dozens like Michelangelo and Titian, Degas and Monet, Hopper and O’Keeffe who combed gray hair, working all the while. Artists don’t think about retirement. They’re already doing what they always wanted to do.
With that in mind, earlier this year TIME commissioned Eugene Richards to visit a number of prominent American artists who were in their 80s or about to arrive there. Over 7 months he photographed them in their studios, homes and galleries. What follows are pictures from eight of those encounters, with John Baldessari, Mark di Suvero, Robert Frank, Robert Irwin, Alex Katz, Faith Ringgold, Betye Saar and Wayne Thiebaud.
Keep in mind that the work artists do late in life can sometimes rank among their most influential achievements. Titian is the great example. In his 70s and 80s he virtually invented free brushwork, a flurry of wild strokes that would unlock the firm contours of Renaissance painting and be adopted by artists from Velazquez and Rubens to the 20th century Expressionists. Then there’s Renoir. Over the last decade or so of his life he made scores of peachy, plump nudes. They look a little campy to us now but they fascinated Picasso and Matisse and helped them to rethink the human body. Two decades later Matisse, when Matisse was in his 70s and largely an invalid, he developed the cut-paper technique that led to some of the most powerful and delightful work of his long career – more than that, to a new way to signify pleasure. Having suffered two debilitating surgeries, maybe he just wanted to be the one in control of the blades. That’s another thing about the late ripening of artists, maybe the best thing. Every day, they can just pick up the old tools and take charge.
Eugene Richards is an award-winning American photographer. He was recently honored with a second Getty Images Grant for editorial photography.
Richard Lacayo is an art critic and editor-at-large at TIME.
Robert Frank, 88Eugene Richards for TIMEWhen others created wholesome photo essays, Frank (who was born in Switzerland) photographed the side of America never shown in magazines—the workingman in Detroit, the transvestite in New York, the segregation on public transportation—in his 1959 book The Americans.Eugene Richards for TIMEThough The Americans was not immediately embraced by the art establishment, its influence was great. Fifty years later, Frank's work still shocks.Eugene Richards for TIMEThough Frank rarely makes public appearances these days, his work has continued to be the subject of new exhibitions and examinations.Eugene Richards for TIMEWayne Thiebaud, 92Eugene Richards for TIMEAt his age, Thiebaud says, it's natural to think about what you would do if you could start again—particularly because you can't answer that question any earlier. "I don't think you learn that much early enough to give yourself that much sense," he says.Eugene Richards for TIMEThe artist's process is much as it ever was: he still paints nearly every day, including holidays. "It's a kind of madness," he says.Eugene Richards for TIME"All along, you just keep hacking away at it," he says of his approach to painting."You try to get as many things as you can that don't embarrass you, but you never expect too many. It's a batting average of pretty low impressiveness."Eugene Richards for TIME"I didn't go to art school, so I worked my way through," explains Thiebaud, who had jobs in sign painting and commercial art. "I had a lot of wonderful people that showed me how to do things."Eugene Richards for TIMEJohn Baldessari, 82Eugene Richards for TIME"I tend to work in a series. That is, I just don't do one show," says Baldessari, a conceptual artist who splices together images. He believes his art is a constant project. "I just start working and then keep working," he says, "until I think I've said everything I have to say about that topic."
Eugene Richards for TIME"I think I told somebody that I probably would slit my wrists if I couldn't do art," Baldessari says. "It's what I do. It's my life."Eugene Richards for TIMEDoes Baldessari ever think of retiring? No. "I would go crazy," he says.Eugene Richards for TIMEBut some questions remain unanswered: "I still don't know whether art helps anybody," he says. "It seems to provide some sort of spiritual nourishment that people need. But oddly enough, you know, now that my art sells, I can give a lot of money to charity and social causes. So in a way, art is helping, but in a very roundabout way."Eugene Richards for TIMEMark di Suvero, who turns 80 on Sept. 18Eugene Richards for TIME Art can transform people," says di Suvero, who is considered America's greatest Constructivist sculptor. "It gives you a vision into the human being and the human spirit, and it is one of the huge motors of change that's incredible and wonderful."Eugene Richards for TIME Di Suvero is a firm believer that society is capable of changing for the better—and that art can help that change along.Eugene Richards for TIME"It is that thing of the spirit that counts. Everything else becomes flimflam," di Suvero says. "The beauty of the spirit is what you find in art."Eugene Richards for TIMEAlex Katz, 86Eugene Richards for TIME“You’re always looking for more. I never in my wildest dreams thought I would end up where I am, you know. At the same time, I’m not satisfied,” says Katz, who is best known for the cutout portrait style he developed in the 1950s.Eugene Richards for TIMEFaith Ringgold, 82Eugene Richards for TIME"I thought it was natural to always have art in my life," says Ringgold, who addresses issues like racism and gender inequality in her work. Ringgold is a teacher as well as an artist: "Struggle inspires me. I was brought up in an atmosphere of struggle in the ’60s, and I tried to pass that inspiration on to my students."Eugene Richards for TIMERobert Irwin, 84Eugene Richards for TIME"For me it’s always been fun," says Irwin, whose installations rely on light. "It’s a fun game, even when I’m scared. I mean, how blessed can you be? I get to play my game every day.”Eugene Richards for TIMEBetye Saar, 87Eugene Richards for TIME"What I find the most interesting is that the reason for creating has changed," she says. "As a young artist I was, like many artists, ambitious. Now, in my 80s, I feel more relaxed about it. I want to present things that really speak to the authentic me rather than what’s popular in the art world or what the trends are or whether it can sell. All of those things seem to have fallen away."Eugene Richards for TIME"What I find the most interesting is that the reason for creating has changed," she says. "As a young artist I was, like many artists, ambitious. Now, in my 80s, I feel more relaxed about it. I want to present things that really speak to the authentic me rather than what’s popular in the art world or what the trends are or whether it can sell. All of those things seem to have fallen away."Eugene Richards for TIME
