Art in Novels: Siri Hustvedt, “What I loved” (2003)

Leo Hertzberg, the main character of this sophisticated novel, is an art historian. His best friend, Bill Weschler, is an artist. The story is set in New York, between the Seventies and the Nineties, and the art system is obviously the background, more or less like in “A Nightfall”. But if compared with the not so ambitious book by Micheal Cunningham, Siri Hustvedt‘s “What I loved” appears immediately to be more involved with the problems about art making and art writing; especially in the first third, our favorite one.

A disquieting and interesting character comes on the scene in the last part of the book. He is the artist Theodore Giles, accused of sexual murdering of a young guy. Teddy Giles, alias the She-Monster, flirts with drugs, ambiguity, and sexuality to create the aura of his artworks. Nevertheless the art system quickly falls into his trick, providing him with easy money and celebrity. Hertzberg has to fight against this dark side of the game, for saving the people and things he loves. In Gilles’ case the problem is all about the kind of information his forms deliver.

December 22, 2016