"This volume ... evolved from 'Artists' last thoughts,' a public discussion organized by the Getty Research Institute and held at the Getty Center, Los Angeles, 28 May 2002, in concurrence with 'Last and latest thoughts--from Beethoven to the present,' a symposium organized by the Ojai Music Festival and held in Ojai, California, 30-31 May 2002"--T.p. verso.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

On creativity and lateness / Karen Painter -- Pt. 1. Piet Mondrian's last thoughts / Nancy J. Troy -- Willem de Kooning : same change / Richard Shiff -- Unknowing parallels : the last artistic thoughts of Mark Rothko and Eva Hesse / Thomas Crow -- Frank Gehry in conversation with Ernest Fleischmann / edited by Carol McMichael Reese -- Pt. 2. W.A. Mozart's Beethovenian afterlife : biography and musical interpretation in the twilight of idealism / Karen Painter -- Richard Wagner's unfinished symphonies / John Deathridge -- Between resignation and hope : the late works of Richard Strauss / Bryan Gilliam -- Idealism and innocence : the failure of opera reform in the late Weimar Republic / John Rockwell -- A scale of eternity : Gustav Mahler and the autobiographical / Stanley Cavell.