TY  - JOUR
AU  - Galenson, David
TI  - The Greatest Artists of the Twentieth Century
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 11899
PY  - 2005
Y2  - December 2005
DO  - 10.3386/w11899
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11899
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11899.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
David Galenson
Department of Economics
University of Chicago
1126 East 59th Street
Chicago, IL  60637
Tel: 773/702-8258
Fax: 773/702-8490
E-Mail: galenson@uchicago.edu
M1  - published as David W. Galenson. "The Greatest Artists of the Twentieth Century," in "Conceptual Revolutions in Twentieth-Century Art" Cambridge University Press (2009)

AB  - Pablo Picasso was by far the greatest artist of the 20th century: textbooks of art history contain more than twice as many illustrations of his work as of that of his closest rival, Henri Matisse. A survey of textbooks also identifies Jackson Pollock as the greatest American artist, by a narrow margin over Andy Warhol. The 15 greatest artists of the century include nine conceptual innovators, who made their greatest contributions early in their lives, in their 20s and 30s, and six experimental innovators, who generally did their greatest work in their 40s and 50s - and even, in the case of Mondrian, in his 70s. Contrary to the belief of many humanists, the textbooks show that in art, as in all intellectual activities, importance is determined by innovation.
ER  -