The few exceptions, such as the late novelist Kay Nolte Smith, are known for being just that: exceptions. Indeed, the closer an artist was or is to Rand's orbit and the little world of her "Objectivist" movement, the less likely he or she is to be artistically creative and productive. Even in the subcultures of fiction-writing and of libertarianism, there are precious few artists (and none of significant note) whom one can identify as having been influenced strongly by Rand, despite the fact that she has had a strong impact on politics and economics. From the perspective of the wider culture, such artists do not exist. The silence of artists influenced by Rand is deafening. There must be something, because the artists are on strike. How can this be? Doesn't Rand's core philosophy advocate intellectual independence, individualism, and personal freedom? What in that combination can there be to strike against?
The answer, I think, is that the artists - like the heroes of Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged - are on strike. Yet has she been aesthetically influential? Where are the novelists and poets, painters and sculptors, architects and musicians who apply Ayn Rand's ideas or style to the creation of art that inspires the soul? Why has Rand's work not led to an artistic renaissance, even one limited to some lively subculture?
Love her or hate her, Ayn Rand was one of the most popular creative artists of the 20th century. The writer is the engineer of the human soul. Artist Shrugged Artist Shrugged by Peter Saint-Andre (1999)įirst published in the Monadnock Review, February 1999.
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