Kenneth Clark on aging
Golden sunset, irretrievable loss: creativity in later life
“The artist grows old” was delivered in 1970 as the annual Rede Lecture; at the time art historian Kenneth Clark was Robert Rede Lecturer at Cambridge University. It makes for interesting reading nearly half a century later, providing a thoughtful balance between the recognition of the regrets of older poets and artists and the understanding and inspiration that comes from a lifetime of creativity. Unsurprisingly for his time and perspective, Clark’s essay is exclusively about the later life experiences of creative men …
“Many artists and writers have, with infinite pain, created great works of art out of the condition of age. Their rage at human folly has not been impotent, their re-enactment of things done has been a means of re-creating them as part of a life-preserving myth, and they have arrested the moment when the body and soul fall asunder, caught enough of the body to make the moment comprehensible, and seen how its disintegration reveals the soul.”