Art Does Not Exist

by Rosalyn Drexler

Art Does (Not!) Exist is lively, inventive, and artfully wicked. In the world according to video artist Julia Maraini , life is in need of tracking control. Personas warp and twist in a perverse parody of modern life that is, nonetheless, exactly the thing itself. As the protagonist prepares a video for an important grant application, she discovers that the video has been tampered with, and a snuff film of her controversial star (a wealthy Brazilian) added. Does she turn it in? Does she receive an NEA grant? How much hipper can hip be than Art Does (Not!) Exist?

Art Does (Not!) Exist is about Julia Maraini, an artist in her early twenties involved in video and other new genres, who is down on her luck: her mad scientist husband is gone but threatens to return; and her apartment on the lower east side close to Soho, burns down under suspicious circumstances. Through it all she works at completing her art projects hoping to receive an NEA grant for one of them, or at least an invitation to be included in the prestigious Whitney Biennial. One of her projects is an interview with two skeletons purported to be Nag and Nell, the parents of Hamm, a character in Samuel Beckett's Endgame. Her competitors are: a Brazilian steel magnate who writes her sexy letters and appears by two mysterious characters; a famous British feminist who is in the States to promote her first novel; and a pair of near-sighted detectives disguised in Hawiian shirts. At one point her estranged husband, his mother and step-father appear on the Geraldo Show where all hell breaks loose. This is a book about the way an artist thinks, it examines what's at stake in today's art world - and dares to ask the question, what is art anyway? A question that has been pondered ever since someone handed a loaded paintbrush to a chimp and aimed her at a canvas. Written with tongue in one cheek and tofu in the other, Art Does (Not!) Exist is both funny and nourishing.

Genres: Fiction, Art

Paperback

First published June 1, 1995

About the author

Rosalyn Drexler, a painter, playwright, and novelist, has been on the scene in several arts for many years. She is well known in Soho art galleries, infamous off-Broadway, and highly regarded as a fiction writer.

Reviews

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hello, Rosalyn Drexler! Fascinating unknown cultural titan with an amazing career—former professional wrestler, pop-art painter, sculptor, playwright, screenwriter and, if that wasn’t enough (listening Gass?), avant-pop novelist, apparently still around, aged 85 and some months, last book in 2007. Hello! And now the bad news: most of her books are out of print. Paris Review Prizes, Guggenheim Fellowships, Emmy Awards, National Endowments—nope, not enough to keep a writer’s books in print in America. This one, published by FC2 in 1996, was so fresh and unique I mistook the writer for a younger, hungrier specimen—Drexler was in her seventieth year upon publication. A spiky, stabby satirical knife-parade, a loose-lipped and ditto-limbed formal frolic of her own, Art Does (Not!) Exist evokes the savagery of Lucy Ellmann with a dashette more danger and ALL CAPS. A tremendous primer for the Collected Works of Rosalyn Drexler, which you should all read immediately, if they get reprinted.

[Lisa Reads & Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't going to review this, but a thought occurred this morning when I recognized similarities between this novel and Infinite Jest. Drexler doesn't go over-the-top as much as Foster, and the book is much more concise, yet there is a flavor -- perhaps a brand of creativity -- that I enjoyed in both. They have messages about entertainment and art in modern society that motors both plots. Drexler is more stable, perhaps due to her age at the writing as compared to Foster, who was still so very young. Anyway, just something that made me go Hmmmmmm.

[A · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a seriously under read and under appreciated book. Drexler is a wonderful novelist and artist, as well as a very nice person. She is a playwright and fought in the ring under the name of Rosa Carlo. This book is truly funny, especially if you know the people she is satirizing!