An Unconventional Tale of Art and Women’s Wrestling in 1970s New York

A favored Instagram account of mine is run by the Meredith Rosen Gallery, which regularly shares clips of people engaging in daring, spontaneous, or downright reckless acts. From a woman in a bikini and wool hat plunging into a frozen lake to a child mercilessly attacking an inflatable Santa in a front yard, each post carries the same hashtag: “#artdealing.” This suggests that the art world itself can be seen as a metaphor for every kind of madness, vanity, and bold folly.

This playful spirit of contrast permeates Rosalyn Drexler’s offbeat 1972 novel “To Smithereens,” which explores two seemingly unrelated 1970s New York subcultures: the contemporary art scene and women’s professional wrestling. The story opens with an unusual encounter at a movie theater, where a man places his hand on a young woman’s thigh. She reacts fiercely—crushing his fingers, striking his wrist, and dousing him with her drink.

Instead of recoiling, the man, Paul—a middling art critic—finds himself drawn to her. They begin a relationship, and Paul encourages Rosa, a spirited woman without a defined profession, to enter the world of professional wrestling, a realm that fascinates him. Rosa agrees to give it a shot.

Narrated alternately by Paul and Rosa, the novel examines a dynamic where a man challenges a woman to push boundaries and the woman embraces these challenges to assert her strength, reject conventional femininity, and expand her sense of self. While Paul attempts to educate Rosa about art, her perspective diverges sharply from his. When he shows her Magritte’s painting “The Listening Room”—depicting a large apple occupying an entire room—Rosa disputes his interpretation of the apple as “aggressive” and “crowding” the space.

Paul is depicted as a satirical figure: a self-important art writer fixated on providing clarity. As he navigates a circuit of parties, gallery openings, and 1960s-style “happenings” (including one event where he receives a sexual favor in a mausoleum), he is preoccupied with coining a memorable phrase to secure his reputation.