» Money. Euros – Beauties series

Created between 1998 and 1999, Money. Euros – Beauties series takes the form of hand-painted banknotes. Each horizontal composition echoes the format of paper currency: on one side the denomination is inscribed, while on the other appears the depiction and name of a prominent female figure drawn from mythology, literature, religion, and contemporary history. These include Helen of Troy, Leda, Mary Magdalene, Dulcinea del Toboso, Carmen, Esmeralda, Lara from Doctor Zhivago, Leonora from Verdi’s Il Trovatore, Rhea Silvia, and even Monica Lewinsky. 
 
By reimagining money as a bearer of cultural rather than economic value, Tan reconfigures the very idea of currency into a tribute to female archetypes who have shaped human imagination across centuries. At the faint background of each note lies the phrase “The Beauty will save our World” – part reminder, part warning – pointing at both the redemptive power and the withering fragility of art, beauty, and cultural memory as the true foundation upon which all human life rests, connects, and thrives.