Bourgeois was far from the only artist who continued to evolve right up until the end of her life. Gubar, a feminist scholar and literary critic, argues that women artists have historically found tremendous freedom in old age, liberated at last from domestic obligations, sexual objectification, and the dominion of men. Grand Finales profiles nine such women \u2014 including two visual artists, Bourgeois and Georgia O\u2019Keeffe \u2014 to establish a lineage of creatives who reinvented themselves in their final years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\t\tCover image of Susan Gubar\u2019s Grand Finales: The Creative Longevity of Women Artists, 2025, W.W. Norton & Company (image courtesy W.W. Norton & Company) \t\t\t<\/p>\n
The book is ostensibly powered by Gubar\u2019s scholarly curiosity about the interrelation of creativity and old age. But her research is also rooted in a deeply personal desire for role models who might teach her how to age \u201cwith mojo, with panache, with bravura performances of geezer machismo,\u201d to repeat the author\u2019s irresistible phrase. Her chosen artists certainly have lessons to impart, but she wisely eschews hagiography in her profiles. O\u2019Keeffe, for one, proves a prickly character, though her obvious flaws don\u2019t detract from her remarkable last act, when she traded New York for New Mexico, escaping the shadow of her famous philandering husband, photographer Alfred Stieglitz, and producing her most iconic work.<\/p>\n
No two women\u2019s arcs are alike, through Gubar groups her subjects by common theme: the \u201clovers\u201d (O\u2019Keeffe and the writers George Eliot and Colette) who drew newfound energy from relationships with younger men; the \u201cmavericks\u201d (Bourgeois, the writer Isak Dinesen, and the poet Marianne Moore) who leveraged their quirky sensibilities to undermine stereotypes about old women; and the \u201csages\u201d (jazz pianist-composer Mary Lou Williams, poet Gwendolyn Brooks, and dancer-choreographer Katherine Dunham) who were invigorated late in life by a commitment to social justice. Along the way, she invokes scores of other women artists who remade old age in their own image.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\t\tSusan Gubar (\u00a9 Julie Gray)<\/p>\n
Gubar, herself 80 years old, doesn\u2019t romanticize the experience of aging: she knows firsthand that with it comes a parade of losses, from our strength and mobility to our loved ones. But she takes heart in the dynamism and adaptability of her subjects, many of whom produced their most ambitious and original art as they approached the end of their lives. The book\u2019s in-depth analyses of some of these works can slip into a rather academic register, and may seem dauntingly dense to readers seeking straightforward inspiration, but for the lit crit lovers among us, they prove wonderfully enlightening.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Among Gubar\u2019s most interesting findings is how the constraints of getting older can present opportunities to explore new artistic modes. Bourgeois\u2019s late-life sculptures, for example, \u201cgrew humungous until, toward the very end of her life, they shrank into small proportions that could be handled at a table in a wheelchair.\u201d Meanwhile, the elder O\u2019Keeffe \u201coften found watercolor, pastel, and graphite easier to use than oils\u201d after losing her central vision at 84.<\/p>\n
Grand Finales is a rigorous, intellectually rousing portrait of the artist as an old woman, though some biographical sketches prove more compelling than others. Creativity, Gubar concludes, is a muscle that one either uses or loses, and the use of it offers enormous benefits as we age. Artistic projects helped give all the book\u2019s subjects purpose and solace as they navigated impairment and grief. These artists refused to consign themselves to what the author calls \u201cLittle-Old-Lady-Land,\u201d and instead opted to keep searching, pushing, and trying new things. Above all, Gubar writes, they shared \u201can in-your-face audacity that bespeaks a drive to keep on realizing one\u2019s own potential.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n