THE FOUNTAINHEAD

Ivo van Hove about The Fountainhead

“When I first read the novel the characters gripped me, each and every one of them humans of fles hand blood, and at the same time they are larger than life. They are symbols for ideas of grandeur: There’s the brilliant architect Howard Roark who follows his own ideals and dreams of a new world, a city of tomorrow. And then there’s Peter Keating, his colleague who constantly compromises and adapts his designs to fit the market?s demands. The battle between Roark and his adversaries is bloodcurdlingly well written.

To me, The Fountainhead is a war of ideas. The great question the book poses: What is creation? What does it mean to create? And what is integrity in the process of creating? The novel is set in the milieu of architects in Twenties New York, where the battle between modernism and classicism raged, but even today its questioning of creation is one that plays in our minds: The balance between the commercial and the innovative, the market and pure expression. Rand uses the architect’s world as a metaphore to discuss art, engagement, individualism and autonomy. But The Fountainhead is also a love story that tinkers at the edges of decency. A relentless love develops between Howard Roark and Domonique Francon, that shows the hardships of giving yourself wholly to another while maintaining your own integrity. At a certain point Roark states: “I could die for you, but I couldn’t and wouldn’t live for you.” It is an engaging, addictive novel that was begging to be staged.’