Opera ultima

Abstract

Many visual artists have given their work a turning point in the last period of their lives, even more so if they are aware of the rapid approach of death. Some have adopted particular strategies with which to face the leap in the dark that death represents. "One work more", said André Gide, asking for a last artistic chance and challenge, while Marcel Duchamp confronted himself for twenty years with a work that he considered from the beginning as "posthumous". Starting from these two poles of reflection, the text identifies in some contemporary artists – from Hans Hartung to Willem de Kooning, from Robert Mapplethorpe to Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Martin Kippenberger – some singular varieties of "late style" intended to climb over the absolute moment, reversing the times and the terms of the opposition life/death.