The End Artists’ Late and Last Works Carel Blotkamp

‘Late style may be the visual expression of what it feels like to face the end – or it may be nothing more than a critic’s fantasy, a by-product of our hunger for hidden meanings, narrative closure, and valedictory statements. More likely, it is both at once: the subjective expression of an artist, viewed subjectively. That’s why lateness means something, if it means anything at all, only in our time-bound experience of late works. There is a specificity – a fragility – to lateness.’ — Max Norman, The New Yorker

‘In The End, Carel Blotkamp tells us that the last works of visual artists often have a mythology attached to them. Often this is read into the works retrospectively; we can perceive in last works the summary of a career, and the perfection of a style, such as Mark Rothko’s last paintings, which seem to be an endpoint of abstraction and meditative calm . . . Blotkamp suggests that unfinished paintings – and last works are often and inevitably unfinished – show a more human side to artists, especially, like Raphael, those who are lauded as godlike in their abilities.’ — Insights Magazine, Australia