Anna Weyant and the Problem of Aesthetic Superiority

Anna Weyant presents an interesting problem. As you can see from this photograph she is young, slim, blonde, and extremely beautiful. In strictly conventional aesthetic terms her appearance puts her at the very, very top of a hierarchy of personal female beauty. Ms. Weyant is also a painter, and a highly successful one at that. In the extremely challenging world of painterly fine arts, Ms. Weyant, at the tender age of 27, has ascended to the top of a hierarchy of avid painterly contenders. If you need any evidence for that, her exclusive representation by the pre-eminent gallerist Larry Gagosian ought to be proof enough. Mr. Gagosian may currently be the world’s most prominent gallery owner, and his imprimatur can make or break an artist. Ms. Weyant’s paintings may or may not be good, but much like her personal appearance, they look good. By look good, I mean that they make sense within a conventional understanding of what western art history believes to be a good painting. The connections to Dutch Golden Age paintings, both still lives and portraits is obvious, as are links to the surrealism of De Chirico and the attention to bodies and their associated emotions in the works of Lucian Freud. Whatever else her paintings may be, they make sense. <a href="https://medium.com/eros-ethics/anna-weyant-and-the-problem-of-aesthetic-superiority-725bab2c1fba">Click Here</a>