Contemporary women’s art - moneywise
In our contemporary culture money is the ultimate expression of power. We may find it odd though that a novel so obsessed with power in all its positive and negative sides ignores the big issue of money. There are just a few instances in which the question of moneymaking is tackled. While it is implied that Leila Sand is powerful enough to disregard this issue and to focus on herself, on her self-love, Leila’s main pursuit seems to be something beyond money and growing rich. Moreover she is busy to spend rather than multiply her income on charity-like art affairs by building a gallery for Dart and other young artists - ‘to get them started’. At this point Leila sounds like a ‘real businesswoman’ to Mr. Donegal, Dart’s father, who finds it ‘an admirable quality, especially in an artist’ p.42/II. The slightly mocking attitude of Erica Jong towards Mr. Donegal, the accomplished WASP, who often says things as if he were the final arbiter, is also a real break with the conventional belief that women artists are not big earners. The strong clash of WASPdom versus Jewishness is acted through attitudes to money as well as social mores:
I wanted to tell Mr. Donegal that his immediate association of Jews with bad taste and moneygrubbing was not only anti-Semitic but a cliché unworthy of his intellect. p.43/II
What prevails in Leila’s attitude towards money is her strong distaste of all money-addicts - whether tycoons or lovers; gallery owners or Grand Venice Ball celebrities. Whenever Leila is to mingle with them she is necessarily alarmed and appalled and eventually far and away from them. Erica Jong’s further disagreement with the contemporary addiction of moneymaking creates and introduces a side character of an artist, a male one though, Wayne Riboud. Wayne is the Nevada biker who has become the flavor of the month by meticulously reproducing dollar bills, yen, francs, and lire, and trading them for necessities like food and clothing. Eventually it has become quite fashionable in New York to hang money on the walls. Thus the conceptual artist also sets not only a sensation but an artistic and social trend, reflecting the pressing issue of our contemporary culture. Here is his credo, which speaks for itself:
Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of American public. That’s why I sell them money. I used to do sensitive nudes and still lives, Turneresque luminescent skies, mad Pollockian abstractions. None of your arcane symbolism here. Pass the buck: that is all ye know on earth and all ye need to know. p.75/X
Copyright © : Iliyana Nedkova,1996-7
N.Paradoxa : Issue No.6, 1998