At 87, New York-based artist Larry Poons remains highly productive, with two works featured in Artnet Auctions' GEMS: Collecting Post-War Abstraction, live through September 24, 2025. The paintings—To Have Missed the Walk (2014, est. $160,000–$180,000) and Jarrett (2019, est. $60,000–$70,000)—exemplify his color-driven, gestural abstraction. Poons, who studied at the New England Conservatory of Music before turning to painting at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, is also showing in Yares Art's group exhibition "Fields of Color V" and recently had a solo show there, "Provocation, Iliad: Powers + Spells." In a studio visit, he discussed his process, his early career, and his belief that painting has no rules.
This matters because Poons represents a living link to the post-war abstraction movement, and his continued output at 87 challenges ageist assumptions about artistic decline. The article also highlights the ongoing market for his work through a major online auction platform, underscoring how older artists can remain commercially and critically relevant. Poons's insistence on process over preconception offers a refreshing counterpoint to conceptual trends, reaffirming the enduring power of pure painterly instinct.