Journal of Political Economy Vol. 108 No. 4 2000
Age and the Quality of Work: The Case of Modern American Painters
Abstract
Psychologists have found that the age at which successful practitioners typically do their best work varies across professions, but they have not considered whether these peak ages change over time, as economic models suggest they might. Using auction records, we estimate the relationship between artists' ages and the value of their paintings for two successive cohorts of leading modern American painters: de Kooning, Pollock, Rothko, and others born during 19001920 and Frank Stella, Warhol, and others born during 192140. We find that a substantial decline occurred over time in the age at which these artists produced their most valuableand most importantwork and argue that this was caused by a shift in the nature of the demand for modern art during the 1950s.
- DOI
- 10.1086/316099
- Volume
- 108
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 761-777
- Language
- en
- Sources
- bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref