Few 20th century women were as controversial as Ayn Rand. She sold millions of books--and simultaneously made many, many enemies. Often she was her own worst enemy: while her philosophy of Objectivism had several tenants that are favorable to conservatives, its core belief of atheism obviously isn't. In the 1950s, Rand met William F. Buckley, and wondered how somebody that intelligent and articulate could be a good Catholic boy and author of 1951's God And Man At Yale. Buckley's National Review responded by writing a scathing review of Atlas Shrugged written by Whitaker Chambers, who said, "From almost any page of Atlas Shrugged, a voice can be heard, from painful necessity, commanding: 'To a gas chamber--go!'".
Ayn And Art
It's ironic that Ayn Rand had little truck with conservatives, because the two have much in common. Ayn Rand's mid-1960s Capitalism: The New Ideal includes chapters written by Alan Greenspan and makes a pretty decent warm-up to supply-side economics, which would debut about a decade later. And in terms of aesthetics, like many conservatives, at heart, Rand was extremely conservative in her love of classical form in painting, sculpture and music. (An exception was architecture--The Fountainhead's Howard Roark was very much a modernist. The MGM film version made his buildings look like a cross between Frank Lloyd Wright's later work (whom Rand partially based Roark on) and Mies van der Rohe's.)
Rand died in 1982, but she still sells several hundred thousand books a year, and enjoys a surprisingly loyal following, the most erudite of which appreciate many of her ideas, but aren't afraid to criticize them or at least stress-test them to see how they hold up against modern standards. Two such people are Louis Torres and Michelle Marder Kamhi, the editors of Aristos, an online journal, and the co-authors of What Art Is: The Esthetic Theory of Ayn Rand, which examines her views on the aesthetics of the mid-20th century--in other words, modernism--and then ponders what she'd think about postmodernism.
![The Fountainhead [VHS]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51WJA5B035L._SL120_.jpg)
Article comments
1 - Al Barger
I would strongly disagree that Rand's views on aesthetics would provide an argument for censorship. They do not. Not thinking that something is really art doesn't mean that you would believe in censoring it.
Somehow, you failed to mention her main work on aesthetics, The Romantic Manifesto.
Her basic arguments about meaning and representation and values in art are quite good, but as she was sometimes want to do, she could be rather arbitrary and just refuse to see other points of view.
Thus, she saw absolutely no value in Elvis Presley, or anything in the rock tradition. That's not because there's not skill and values, but she just didn't see them or relate to them, and thus insisted that they didn't exist.
Ah well, nobody's perfect.
2 - Ed Driscoll
Al,
I haven't read it, but I almost included an Amazon link to it. Based on the description on Amazon, it sounded much more like a criticism of literature than painting or sculpture. Guess I should have included it!
Ed
3 - Mac Diva
Ayn Rand was about as conservative as a person could get. There is no inherent conflict between being an atheist and being a conservative. Besides, Rand had a God -- money. As for Rand's opinions of art, there doesn't seem to be much there. Looks like writers desperately in need of a topic, so they made one up, to me. Imagining what Ayn Rand would say about a future she lacked the imagination to even envision? Please.
4 - Al Barger
The Romantic Manifesto is her broad treatise on aesthetics and beauty. She used more examples to make her point from the written word - partly because that was her personal milieu - but it's more concerned with general principles of art, and how to judge better from worse.
If you are interested in her ideas on art and literature specifically, this would be a good place to start.
5 - Shark
Coupla minor things:
"...its precipitous drop from Da Vinci to Mondrian..."
If you've ever seen Mondrian's early works, you'll understand that the 'drop' is not so 'precipitous'. Like most modern masters, he was quite a talented painter, illustrator, etc. when it came to relatively realistic depictions.
"...Warhol...or Roy Lichtenstein... there's a far cry from the unbelievable amount of blood, sweat, skill and sheer craftsmanship required to generate a portrait or landscape of near photographic detail (one or two or three hundred years before cameras of course) and silk screening a hundred perfect copies of an existing label or illustration."
You're on pretty fragile, subjective ground here: "blood, sweat" etc. are kind of an arbitrary way for you to define the value of an art work-- and an error, imo. Art is also about creativity, ideas, concepts.
Besides, if one wants a 'portrait or landscape of near photographic detail' --- then one can take a photograph. (heh)
Much of modern art was a response to the rise of photography.
Thanks for the review, tho!
Carry on...
6 - Shark
Couple of examples
Check out the windmill (to appear later more abstract) and the flowers.
Awesome!
7 - None
Ed,
Certainly you mean "tenets" NOT "tenants"?!?
8 - Eric Olsen
no, that's what he meant: they were renting out the basement (smile)
9 - Diane Barnes
I have a couple of very good objectivists friend. While, I can agree with some of Rand's philosophy of life, there are a few places that I highly disagree. One was her view of what art is. The objectivists I know only like the symphony,they could not tolerate any other type of music, especially rock or *Gasp* country music. They very much enjoyed art like the photography of Ansel Adams, but could not stand anything like Van Gough or Matisse.
Seems a narrow way to look at art.I just don't think that a philosophy of life can include something as subjective as the "right" kind of art or music.
The other point I disagree with Rand on is her view of women and sex. But, I suppose that's for another post.
10 - Nick Jones
Having disliked The Fountainhead (that rape scene - WTF?), and having given up on Atlas Shrugged after a few dozen pages, I'd like a recommendation on a book or two which explains Objectivism. I know I'll probably hate it, but I like to explore other points of view from time to time.
11 - DrPat
If you've already been through The Fountainhead - assuming you did not give up after the "rape scene" - you may want to check out online sources like Ayn Rand.org - you only need enter her name in Google to get a long list of references from both sides.
There are also numerous comments in reviews on BlogCritics about Rand, her works and her philosophy.
12 - Nick Jones
But is there any one book that sums up her philosophy in toto, a kind of "Objectivism 101"?
13 - DrPat
The Romantic Manifesto is fairly thorough in regard to how the philosophy fits with consideration of art.
Philosophy: Who Needs It? is a good starting place, although since you have read through The Fountainhead, you might want to start with The Voice of Reason: Essays in Objectivist Thought.
Other people's writings about Objectivism are usefull, too: Peikoff's Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand and Binswanger's The Ayn Rand Lexicon.
14 - Nick Jones
Thanks for the reading list.