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One Hit Wonders: Why Some of the Most Important Works of Modern Art are Not by Important Artists

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David W. Galenson
Abstract

How can minor artists produce major works of art? This paper considers 13 modern visual artists, each of whom produced a single masterpiece that dominates the artist's career. The artists include painters, sculptors, and architects, and their masterpieces include works as prominent as the painting American Gothic, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D. C. In each case, these isolated achievements were the products of innovative ideas that the artists formulated early in their careers, and fully embodied in individual works. The phenomenon of the artistic one-hit wonder highlights the nature of conceptual innovation, in which radical new approaches based on new ideas are introduced suddenly by young practitioners.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 10885.

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Date of creation: Nov 2004
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:10885

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J0 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General
J4 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets

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  1. Bruce A. Weinberg & David W. Galenson, 2005. "Creative Careers: The Life Cycles of Nobel Laureates in Economics," NBER Working Papers 11799, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. David W. Galenson, 2003. "The Reappearing Masterpiece: Ranking American Artists and Art Works of the Late Twentieth Century," NBER Working Papers 9935, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. David Galenson, 2002. "The Life Cycles of Modern Artists," World Economics, World Economics, Economic & Financial Publishing, PO Box 69, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom, RG9 1GB, vol. 3(3), pages 161-178, July. [Downloadable!]
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