Comment | Perhaps artists do have only ‘ten good years’—but they can happen at any time in their career

The article reflects on the idea that artists may have only 'ten good years' of peak creativity, prompted by a visit to the exhibition "Anselm Kiefer: Early Works" at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. The author contrasts the young Kiefer's deft, emotionally intimate works from 1969–1982 with his later, more grandiose output, arguing that Kiefer's early period surpasses anything he has achieved since. The piece also revisits critic Douglas Cooper's harsh dismissal of late Picasso and former Tate director Alan Bowness's theory of artistic prime.