Wednesday 24 May 2006

Ayn Rand's favourite painter


Tonight: Ayn Rand's favourite artist.

It wasn't Vermeer, although she loved the clarity of his work and his powerful use of light, though not, it has to be said, his milkmaids and serving girls. Too naturalistic.

It wasn't Rembrandt, although she did admire his genius -- although she thought he wasted it on "sides of beef."

It wasn't Salvador Dali, although she did love his style which, she said, "projects the luminous clarity of a rational psycho-epistemology, while most (though not all) of his subjects project an irrational and revoltingly evil metaphysics."

But it was one of Dali's students, José Manuel Capuletti (1925-1976), who she loved above all and whom she collected avidly. She loved his style and his subjects. As she said in a brief piece on Capuletti, he was "a man who is in love with life, with this earth."

Shown here is one of his best that I've seen; a piece called Not Guilty. I posted another Capuletti piece last year, El Canal.

Tomorrow: Ayn Rand's favourite painting. And you know something, there's a clue in what I've said above. Tune in tomorrow and see for yourself.

LINKS: José Manuel Capuletti - Aristos

TAGS: Art, Objectivism

No comments: