The Performance of Art Linda Merrill (Auteur)

The first book devoted to Whistler’s sensational “Ten O’Clock” lecture, The Performance of Art examines how and why the artist took to the podium in 1885 to declare an end to the public’s participation in art, and reveals the role played by Oscar Wilde in this intriguing episode of Whistler’s life. James McNeill Whistler’s “Ten O’Clock” is typically referred to as a lecture, though Whistler himself rejected that term as too dour and pedantic - and certainly too pedestrian - to convey the spritely elegance of his monologue. An aestheticist manifesto, the “Ten O’Clock” takes issue with everything the artist regards as adverse to the independent production and proper appreciation of art. Its tenets illuminate Whistler’s own paintings, prints, and artistic philosophy, while presaging the twentieth-century rupture between fine art and popular appreciation. Initially presented in February 1885 at the late-night hour named in the title, the performance took place in a fashionable London audit