The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria’s Sunday Art Lecture series is back for its ninth year, this time out featuring Katherine Young’s As if Autumn Leaves: Age in Asian and Western Art.
A professor emeritus at McGill University and associate fellow at the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society at the University of Victoria, Young noticed that there were few books that focused on images of old age, particularly bringing a comparative dimension to the subject through the contrast of the imagery of youth and vitality throughout history. Young will deliver three lectures that focus on the portrayal of aging within the cultures of South Asia, East Asia, and the West.
Young believes that the fear of old age is universal, because it is linked to the fear of death, and certain cultures focus a disproportionate amount on the portrayal of youth.
“You can’t understand old age without understanding how cultures represent youth, and some cultures think youth is far more important,” she says. “We have a fear of old age, is that why we try to ignore it, or find euphemisms for it? Do we really want to explore it?”
The concept of old age tends to be portrayed in two drastically opposing ways, depicting either the wise elder or the doddering old fool. Young believes this is because old age is actually divided into two distinct phases, that of wisdom and maturity and that of mental and physical decline.
“I think we have to think of the elderly in two different phases,” says Young. “The elderly can be those at the height of their worldly success and their wisdom and their experience, and then there’s old old age, which can be the period of decline.”
Many societies focus on youth and strength over old age; Young points out how although the Buddha died at age 80, he’s always depicted as young and full of life, and this focus can greatly impact people’s outlook on age.
“When you have the founder of a religion emphasizing youth, that has an enormous influence,” says Young. “We know the Buddha died at 80, but he attained enlightenment as a young man, and he wanted everybody to search for enlightenment in youth, because you never know when death is going to occur.”
On the other hand, other cultures, such as those in East Asia and many Native American societies, show great respect and admiration for their elders.
“In East Asia, we find that the elderly are venerated, so there’s worship of ancestors, which is very important,” says Young. “The founder of Taoism, Lao Tzu, the legend is that he was born as an old man, and he had been in his mother’s womb for many years, so venerability has such esteem, and that carries all the way through much of East Asian culture.”
Eventually, the widespread access to technology such as photography also changed how age was portrayed in societies, says Young, because art and media were no longer restricted to the affluent populations.
“Photography democratized the access to portraiture, because it was usually only elite men that could afford to have the means to have portraits painted,” she says, pointing to rulers and other people of wealth as examples.
Young believes age can be thought of in analogy to a leaf, beginning strong and green in youth before transitioning to red and gold, and finally brown as it withers and dies.
“This idea of early old age and late old age is captured in the metaphor ‘like an autumn leaf,’” she says. “An autumn leaf can be brilliant red and gold, and then we can see it turn brown. This is an age that captures both—it is a transitional age, and an age of ambiguity.”
The Sunday Art Lecture Series
2 to 4 pm Sunday, February 26, March 5, and 12
$30 student tickets for one talk/$75 for series
Art Gallery of Greater Victoria
aggv.ca