The Rich: The Benefactor

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Insulted? But with the discovery of Culture, life took on new meaning. In 1951 he composed a scathing 7,000-word tract. Has God Been Insulted Here?, in which he deplored the "vulgarity" of Faulkner, James Jones, Picasso and Tennessee Williams. Four years later, he bought full-page ads in six Manhattan newspapers to complain that the art world was misleading the people with "obscurity, confusion, immorality, violence," demanded that the public rise up against the "high priests of criticism and the museum directors and the teachers of mumbo jumbo." Bolstering his messianic pronouncements with cash. Hartford got Architect Edward D. Stone (TIME cover. March 31, 1958) to design an ornate museum that was to be a counter to Manhattan's prestigious Museum of Modern Art (which, ironically, was also designed by Stone in his earlier, glass-box period ). Still abuilding in New York's Columbus Circle, the Gallery of Modern Art will be completed next year at a cost of $7,000,000. Says Hartford: "The Museum of Modern Art has managed to become the guiding light in modern painting today, an eminence I don't think it deserves. It is far too avantgarde. I want to get away from the ivory tower painters of today who are dreaming up loud-colored messes in their studios instead of going out and opening their eyes and painting what they see for other people to enjoy." Picasso is Hartford's idea of an ivory tower artist ("no communication"); his leading contender for immortality is Dali. from whom he commissioned a 14-ft. by 12-ft. painting, Christopher Columbus Discovers America. He also admires the work of Andrew Wyeth, Robert Vickrey, Aaron Bohrod, "and of course, Marjorie Steele. She may be my exwife, but I think she is one of the greatest woman painters today." Tennis, Anyone? Hartford has many another project. Barring an unfavorable court decision, he is planning to spend $1,700,000 to bring the civilized delights of the Paris sidewalk café to Manhattan's Central Park. He recently started the new magazine Show, which is chiefly concerned with the performing arts but will soon add sections on painting and the fine arts. He keeps a wandering and unpredictable eye on these enterprises from a variety of homes: a 33-acre farm in New Jersey, a 117-acre estate in Hollywood, a town house near London's Hyde Park, a villa at Cap d'Antibes, a hacienda in Palm Beach, a 13-room duplex in Manhattan hung with Rubens, Winslow Homer and Mary Cassatt.

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