Sightings from Navigator 4, 9
Michelle Marder Kamhi and Lou Torres have recently informed Navigator of their on-going success in generating interest concerning Ayn Rand's aesthetic theories. Exceptionally exciting was the news that the Public Interest has published a review of their book What Art Is: The Esthetic Theory of Ayn Rand in its Spring 2001 issue. The Public Interest is often mentioned as one of the ten most prestigious "public intellectual" journals in America, and sometimes as the most prestigious. Kamhi says, "This is the first time a book on Rand's philosophy has been included in such an influential journal. The reviewer was Roger Kimball, managing editor of The New Criterion and a frequent contributor to the Wall Street Journal. Not surprisingly, Kimball—whose defense of abstract art we criticize in What Art Is—rejects the idea that art can be defined."
During a C-SPAN interview last May, cultural historian Jacques Barzun— author of the recent best-seller From Dawn to Decadence—had good things to say about both What Art Is and Rand's theory of art. Replying to a question about her work, he commented that he had come to know a good deal about one aspect of her philosophy through reading Torres and Kamhi's "very interesting and thorough book" and had thereby "not only remedied [his] ignorance of Ayn Rand's work" but "had come to admire a great part of her theory of art."
A review that appeared in Reason magazine voiced the concern that any attempt at an objective definition of art might lead to censorship. Nonetheless, the reviewer, Charles Oliver, conceded that Torres and Kamhi made a "provocative case" for Rand's theory and provided a "fascinating critique of the muddled thinking of most modern artists and critics."
Last spring, the Journal of Ayn Rand Studies ran a special "symposium" on aesthetics, "inspired by" What Art Is and of course with many articles directly discussing the book. The Spring 2002 issue will carry the authors' rejoinder.
To read more about these and other essays and reviews, as well as the authors' responses to them, visit the Web site http://www.aristos.org. Kamhi notes, too, that the site includes an "Addendum" to their book's chapter on architecture, which presents new evidence regarding Ayn Rand's final estimate of its status as an art
.Navigator readers in northern California will be especially interested to know that Kamhi has received an invitation to speak at the Hoover Institution. Her talk is entitled "Mapplethorpe, 'Censorship,' Quilt-Making, and 'Installations': Why Government and Art Don't Mix." It will be presented on Tuesday, October 23, at 3:30 p.m. in Room 310 of the Herbert Hoover Memorial Building. But she has been advised that anyone driving to the Hoover talk should allow at least 20 minutes to find a parking space!
What Art Is? can be purchased at The Objectivism Store
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Further news from the art renaissance front came in an August 9 letter to Navigator from Fred Ross, chairman of the Art Renewal Center, an organization on which Navigator reported in its September issue.
Says Ross: "We measure [ARC's] success based on the number of people who come to our Web site and use its resources. We are open free to the public, and in a very real sense we feel that everyone who visits our site is a 'member.'"
Defined in that way, Ross says, ARC's membership has grown from 400 only nine months ago to over 60,000 in the last thirty days, and the organization is still reeling from the shock of this success. To date, there are about 200 people who have contributed financially to help pay for ARC's operational expenses, but that number is approximately twice what it was three months ago. ARC's mission, says Ross, "is nothing short of the complete overhaul and reform of society's fine art establishment. We are building a network of our own parallel institutions with our own accreditation services. There will be a place where talented students can find out where they can go to learn how to become artists. There is not, currently, a single university art department that could earn ARC Accreditation, and only a handful of ateliers and art schools, which we have only just published on our site. Books that tell the truth about art history will also earn ARC Accreditation.
"The best living artists, who have been properly trained and who create sensitive, beautiful, and well crafted paintings will be ARC Accredited as will the galleries that sell their work. . . . Collectors will then have a place to go to learn the facts about art and to help separate the wheat from the chaff when selecting their next purchase.
"We foresee that the hoax of modernism will be fully exposed and will topple under a deluge of popular pressure. We never would have believed this possible until we started to see the overwhelming support and growth we've achieved in such a short time and with so little funds. And the larger we get the more people are clamoring to volunteer their time and efforts to help accelerate the process."
Last June 7, at the Metropolitan Art Museum in New York City, Ross delivered a talk setting forth ARC's philosophy to an enthusiastic audience of seven hundred people. The text of that talk may be read at: http://www.artrenewal.org/articles/2001/ASOPA/bad_art_good_art.html
The ARC Philosophy is laid out explicitly at: http://www.artrenewal.org/articles/Philosophy/philosophy1.asp