Meet Today's Rising Creative Vanguard
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The next time you’re in Paris and walk into the vaulted central hall of the Musée d’Orsay, I want you to seek out two paintings on either side of a ground floor wall: two epochal episodes in the birth of modern art, two initial links in the chain that leads from the Salon to the Instagram feed. You already know Olympia, Édouard Manet’s frank tableau from 1863 of a prostitute, her servant, and her cat. But you may not know the painting in the adjacent gallery: The Studio on the Rue la Condamine, from 1870, by the young painter Frédéric Bazille.
There in Bazille’s studio stands Manet himself, with his bushy red beard and pushing 40, surrounded by admirers of a new generation. Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Bazille’s roommate, is seated by the stairs. Claude Monet looks on from the left. Cool light (for this is Paris, where the sky is always gunmetal gray) streams from the double-height windows onto the painted nudes and still lifes in the Batignolles studio: the hottest of new contemporary art, all rejected from the hidebound Salon. As for the lanky figure of Bazille, over six feet tall, it turns out that “Manet did me himself,” as the young painter wrote to his father. In the studio the older artist picked up a brush and finished the younger one’s painting, filling in the figure of Bazille with loose brushstrokes that have the force of a torch-passing ceremony.
Bazille died a few months after he painted The Studio, killed in action on his first day fighting in the Franco-Prussian War. He was 28; what sort of mature career he might have had is one of art history’s great vacancies. But his picture of the young upstarts who would become the Impressionists—a painting not just depicting but literally completed by the Impressionists’ hero—well, it draws me back every time.
Here is an image of how progress happens in culture, and how aspiring artists take on the challenge of living up to their forebears. The younger generation idolizes the elders, but also hungers to displace them. The older generation sees the successors as proof of their influence, or maybe of their eclipse. You are Virginia Woolf, refashioning the Victorian novel to put female consciousness at its center. You are Thelonious Monk, reworking Duke Ellington’s sinuous lines with tension and dissonance. You are Yves Saint Laurent, stepping out from Christian Dior’s shadow with lighter silhouettes. From each generation its innovations, and its impertinences.
Generational successions are rarely as explicit as they are in The Studio, and they appear most clearly in fields where success comes after a long apprenticeship, such as architecture. Go to the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, and you can see how the modulated light in Louis Kahn’s 1972 concrete jewel box gets saluted and clarified in the 2013 extension by Renzo Piano, Kahn’s former employee. Or cooking: from the classics of Escoffier to Paul Bocuse’s and Pierre Troisgros’s nouvelle cuisine, and on to the lightly worn luxury of Éric Ripert and Daniel Boulud. At the ballet, one of the most joyous moments comes when a young dancer is promoted to prima ballerina at La Scala, or étoile at the Paris Opera Ballet, or principal at the American Ballet Theatre, and the older members of the corps pelt them with flowers: A star is born.
The stage delights in such benedictions. Hans Kesting—who will be at the Brooklyn Academy of Music this fall in Ivo van Hove’s adaptation of A Little Life—wears a gold ring inset with a single pearl, the Albert van Dalsumring, which is passed down every decade or so from one great Dutch actor to a younger talent he deems worthy of the honor. In Japan, generational influence can extend to centuries-long dynasties. One of the biggest stars on the Tokyo stage today is Ichikawa Ebizo XI, whose stage name dates back to the 17th century. The queer performers in New York’s ballroom scene compete in explicitly generational houses, where “mothers” teach “children” how to stick a death drop and get their 10s across the board.
It’s successions like these that make you see a generation as more than a sociologist’s bracket or a trend forecaster’s “vibe shift:” see them as frameworks that structure our understanding of why culture matters and how it changes. For a long while we talked about generations in art as a linear, even aristocratic pedigree. Virgil, inspired by Homer’s Odyssey, turns the founding of Rome into a myth about a wandering hero; Dante, inspired by Virgil’s Aeneid, is guided by the Roman poet through purgatory and hell in the Divine Comedy. Yet for Harold Bloom, the literary critic, cultural succession was less a fatherly inheritance than an Oedipal struggle, with each new generation awkwardly writing its own chapter in “a history of anxiety” and creating something new out of a “poetic misprision” of its predecessors. (Misprision means misreading, and it was hardly Bloom’s most pretentious word.) Cézanne was “the father of us all,” said Picasso. But what kind of son takes dad’s legacy and breaks it into cubist pieces?
At one time, new artistic generations seemed to come along with enough regularity that you could give them a name. Fashion had the Antwerp Six, museums had the Young British Artists, and there were New Waves among filmmakers in France, Mexico, and Romania. These transfers of creative capital seem rarer these days, however, not least because so many of us seem quite content to leave the old guard in place.
Our president, the oldest ever, turns 80 next month (and Joe Biden is younger than both House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell); the year’s top-grossing film stars a 60-year-old Tom Cruise in a role he first played at 23; the song of the summer was by the now 64-year-old Kate Bush, made famous on a Netflix series that regurgitates ’80s pop culture for streaming attention spans.
Is it only that audiences have grown content with the current generation, though? Or might younger ones be less willing, or able, to make a clean break? In 2014 the Museum of Modern Art presented a hotly debated painting exhibition called “The Forever Now,” which featured 17 contemporary artists who typified a new generation making…nothing new at all. Who wants to be the standard bearer for a generation of tribute acts, wearing Marilyn Monroe’s gown out again and puckering the seams?
Maybe it’s time we started thinking of generations less as levels of a family tree, less as this-one-begat-that-one. Influences can be messier and more indirect than Bloom’s anxious inheritance of the past, and generations can have queerer affiliations than direct patrimonial descent.
Now that all of human culture lies at the same distance from the search bar, perhaps old and young are all in it together. You are a composer with the entire history of music accessible on your smartphone. You are a painter in an age when artificial intelligence can generate any image with a simple user prompt. You are an actor when every great past performance can be downloaded as a reaction GIF. The kids today understand, better than their ancestors, that there is no clean line dividing them from what came before—that may be the mark of their age.
“Bursting with fierce energy and the spirit of a great jazz artist, Kara brings her entire body and soul to her roles. She pushes her collaborators to be more intentional about their craft and their approach to storytelling, making her, for good reason, one of the most in-demand actors working today.”—Clyde’s playwright Lynn Nottage
“Her movies are hugely entertaining, but she’s also taking on important issues in a way that doesn’t taste like medicine. You don’t walk out of one of her movies and say, ‘Well, that’s done, let’s go for dinner.’ Instead you talk and you think about it.”—Someone Great producer Paul Feig
“There’s altogether too much pretentiously contrived Instagram eye candy in the world today, but when it’s the real thing, carefully thought out and superbly crafted, as Will’s work is, we can happily surrender to it.”—interior designer Ashley Hicks
“Some art dealers are complete monsters who you don’t want to spend five minutes with. Not Isabelle. She’s following in the footsteps of both her mother and grandmother, and it’s clear that she has the business in her blood.”—Jean Pigozzi
“I am Alex Vadukul’s oldest fan, being a youthful 90-year-old alumnus of the Times who wishes I were still on staff. That not being the case, I am content to regularly have his terrific pieces. I started reading him when he was a rookie nearly a decade ago, and he gets better with age. I think this will continue to be true when he hits 90.”—author Gay Talese
“While Shawn would like to think of himself as ‘a cookie full of arsenic,’ as Tony Curtis is described in Sweet Smell of Success, he is kind and fair. His voice has verve, but it’s never harsh or self-satisfied. He’s what Shakespeare would call a saucebox, an impudent lad. But people trust him, and even when he writes something edgy, they forgive him because, well, he’s Shawn McCreesh.”—New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd
“These two incredible rock stars are bringing new life into the space. Etienne Charles telling the history of San Juan Hill? An orchestral tribute to the Notorious BIG? I never thought I would see this type of programming; it’s emotional for me. If this is the level that we’re starting at, I can’t even imagine what the future holds for them.”—Lincoln Center board member Misty Copeland
“She is a sponge of outsider culture. One of her gifts is being able to tap into that. Whereas others may simply put together looks based on current trends, Angelina will embrace the weirdos of the world—she finds the beauty in them.”—Euphoria costume designer Heidi Bivens
“The menu at Bonnie’s in Brooklyn represents the full spectrum of Eng’s hyphenate experience, a culinary-obsessed ’80s kid born to Toisanese immigrants, a haunter of slice shops and dim sum parlors in equal measure. His MSG-laced martini is a cri de coeur against long-held stigmas and, simultaneously, dangerously delicious.”—food writer Joshua David Stein
• Felipe Baeza The Venice Biennale’s breakout artist under 35.
• Alexis Barreyat His app BeReal is coming for Instagram’s social crown.
• Julie Benko The standby who became Funny Girl’s leading lady, Fanny Brice.
• Elegance Bratton A24’s latest darling director closes this month’s New York Film Festival with The Inspection.
• Emma Chamberlain The queen of YouTube, 11.7M subscribers and growing.
• Tita Cicognani Hammer Museum’s hottest reservation is her working jacuzzi.
• Emefa Cole The designer who became the V&A Museum’s first curator of jewelry for the diaspora.
• Jordan E. Cooper Acclaimed comedy Ain’t No Mo’ makes him Broadway’s youngest American playwright.
• Danielle Deadwyler Oscar buzz incarnate for her searing turn as the matriarch in Till.
• Buck Ellison The next Tina Barney? The Whitney Biennial made a strong case for the L.A. photographer.
• FormaFantasma In Venezia, designers Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin proved that Italians do biennales better.
• Sam Fragoso Talk Easy podcaster who sells episodes on vinyl. Even Fran Lebowitz approves.
• Will Graham WaPo scion and producer who went from Capitol Hill to the Hollywood Hills.
• Jacob Gallagher The Wall Street Journal’s resident fit consultant.
• Bertie Gregory With a Disney+ series, call him Cousteau 2.0.
• Madeleine Haddon Curator whose golden touch extends from MoMA to the V&A.
• Jenny Han Netflix’s very own Nora Ephron.
• Jonathon Heyward The first person of color to lead the 106-year-old Baltimore Symphony Orchestra as music director.
• Joaquina Kalukango YouTube her solo from Paradise Square at the Tonys. Enough said.
• Sophie Kauer Cello phenom crossing over into film with TAR, opposite none other than Cate Blanchett.
• Nicolas & Alexis Kugel The next gen of Paris’s collectors paradise.
• Kwame Kwei-Armah The Young Vic’s artistic director lands on Broadway with The Collaboration.
• Daniil & David Liberman Venture capital’s friendly fraternal disrupters.
• Raul Lopez Hood-by-Air co-founder whose young label Luar scored with the Ana bag. Bundle yours with a Bushwick Birkin.
• Taylor Lorenz The Bob Woodward of the TikTok generation.
• Lisa Lucas Pantheon and Schocken Books boss is upending nightstands across the nation.
• Samuel Marino The rare male soprano is revolutionizing opera.
• Glenn Martens Diesel’s defibrillator.
• Ignacio Mattos Get a seat at his table and the burger at Nine Orchard’s Corner Bar.
• Patricia McGregor New York Theater Workshop’s artistic director at the center of the theatrical avant-garde.
• Andre Mellone Interior designer whose studio removed Rock Center’s cobwebs, with help from Apparatus and Green River Project.
• Tyler Mitchell His first Gagosian solo is on view in London, where his photographs are also featured in “The New Black Vanguard” exhibit at Saatchi curated by Antwaun Sargent.
• Jinkx Monsoon Slayed RuPaul’s Drag Race with Judy Garland. Is Live at Carnegie Hall next?
• Kailand Morris Stevie Wonder’s son—model today, aspiring designer tomorrow.
• Carlos Nazario In-demand stylist with an editor’s instinct.
• Jon Neidich Baron of the It boîte. Are you a Le Dive or a Deux Chats?
• Anna Pei With Ode Archival, I.M.’s grand- daughter is pioneering “sentimental asset management.”
• Maxine Petry Pioneer Works’ resident pied piper got even T&C to Red Hook.
• Solea Pfeiffer Broadway’s Penny Lane is way more than just a Band Aid.
• Natasha Pickowicz Haute cuisine’s most sought-after pastry chef.
• Isaac Cole Powell Performer versed in Jerome Robbins and Ryan Murphy–ese. Oh, and Calvin Klein.
• Sam Sanders Get Into It—his hit Vulture podcast, that is.
• Parul Sehgal New Yorker book critic, Booker Prize judge, “trauma plot” skeptic.
• Aldo & Francesco Sersale Positano’s next-gen playboys.
• Shikeith Artist whose fans include Aperture, gallerist Yossi Milo, and Pyer Moss’s Kerby Jean-Raymond.
• SpitLip The London musical theater company electrifying the West End with debut Operation Mincemeat.
• Staud Sarah Staudinger and George Augusto, Los Angeles fashion designers who got Larry David to sit front row.
• Mikaela Straus Singer-songwriter, whose great-great-grandfather co-owned Macy’s, is best known to fans like Harry Styles and Mark Ronson as King Princess.
• Brandon Taylor Acclaimed novelist (The Late Americans is out next year) with fire Twitter feed and newsletter “Sweater Weather.”
• Britt Theodora Pete Davidson’s stylist. Yep, he has one.
• Kaitlyn Tiffany The Atlantic’s fangirl anthropologist.
• Honor Titus Renaissance man who can do punk, poetry and painting.
• Salaman Toor Painter in conversation with the Old Masters whose Baltimore Museum of Art show closes this month.
• Julio Torres Comic fantasist behind HBO’s Los Espookys, the children’s book I Want to Be a Vase, and Pirulinpinpina.
• David Velasco Artforum’s most exciting EIC since Ingrid Sischy.
• Victor Wang Artistic director at Beijing’s M Woods museum is shaking up China’s art scene.
• Eleri Ward Singer bringing Stephen Sondheim to stadiums.
• Kendall Werts Gen-Z Hollywood’s Sue Mengers.
• Veruschka & Roberto Jr. Wirth Fifth generation to say, “Benvenuto all’ Hotel Hassler.”
• Josh Wyatt CultureWorks’s czar can get you that rez at Veronika.
• Danny Lee Wynter Former usher at Royal Court Theatre debuts his play, Black Superhero, there in March.
• Steff Yotka Ssense’s Vreeland, in Chopova Lowena.
• Lucas & Marlene Zwirner Dad’s megagallery caters to megacollectors. Platform, their online marketplace with Bettina Huang, caters to the collectors’ kids.
This story appears in the October 2022 issue of Town & Country. SUBSCRIBE NOW
In the top image: Ben Bloomstein, JiaJia Fei, Antwaun Sargent, Emily Adams Bode, and Aaron Aujla. Bloomstein and Aujla, founders of design firm Green River Project; Fei, founder of first digital consultancy for art; Sargent, curator and director at Gagosian Gallery; Bode, founder of fashion label Bode. They were photographed at the new Manhattan hotel Nine Orchard. On Fei: Simone Rocha dress ($1,925) and socks ($795); Roger Vivier loafers ($1,545; Tiffany & Co. pearl bracelet (worn as a necklace, $850) and large bracelet (worn as a necklace, $1,250); Holly Dyment ring ($6,710). On Sargent: Jil Sander coat, pants ($3,970) and shoes ($1,980); Wales Bonner jumper; Ana Khouri sapphire and tourmaline ring.
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