Luc Travers is an Objectivist art critic—an Objectivist art critic who leads $30 art-appreciation tours for other Objectivists (sometimes non-Objectivists, too). You’d think he’d hate the Norman Rockwell exhibit currently on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum—not for snobby reasons, but on principle.
“I love Norman Rockwell,” says Travers, who is half-French, green-eyed, soft-spoken, and almost 31 years old.
I have a story in this week’s Washington CityPaper about Luc Travers, an Objectivist who leads art appreciation tours.
Luc and I went to see the Norman Rockwell exhibit currently on show at the Smithsonian – I was curious how an Objectivist would react to Rockwell’s subject matter and style, and to the fact that the Rockwell exhibit is on show at a publicly funded museum (public institutions being paid for by dollars taken at gunpoint, and all).
It turns out that Luc loves Rockwell – moreover, he considers his response to Rockwell to be consistent with, and even in furtherance of, Objectivism. As for the public museum part of things – he thinks it would be better if the Smithsonian weren’t paid for out of tax dollars. But since it is, he’s going to go enjoy the art inside.
I must admit, I am not a Rockwell fan – but by the end of our tour of the museum, and mostly as a result of Luc’s enthusiastic and empathetic approach to the art, I’d come around a little as well, to Rockwell, if not to Objectivism.
Read the story here. Find out more about Luc, his tours, and his new book “Touching The Art: A Guide To Enjoying Art At A Museum” here.
