ABSTRACT
Whether unpicking the proposal of a generic ‘late style’ or questioning the inevitability of ‘revealed weaknesses of conception and execution’ in the work of older artists, commentators on late-life creativity tend to focus on the experience of change and development across the individual life-course. ‘Bonding capital’ arises through the connectedness of people who know and trust each other. While these participants may try to re-enact an earlier ‘structure of feeling’, such social capital is also proposed as a prerequisite for the development of ‘bridging capital’, which is articulated in the kinds of social action needed to establish connectedness across deeper social divisions. In Britain, post-war cultural policy has often been dominated by themes of ‘nature and beauty’.
