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Conference Presentations by Corrinne Chong

This interdisciplinary session will explore the dialogue between art and music in addressing the ... more This interdisciplinary session will explore the dialogue between art and music in addressing the subject of mysticism in the long nineteenth century (1789 – 1918). To counteract the positivist current that gained momentum during the period, artistic circles gravitated towards mystical means that initiated the beholder and listener into truths that transcended the world of external appearances. The session seeks to gauge the scope of different interpretations of mysticism and to illuminate how an exchange between art and music may unveil an underlying stream of metaphysical, supernatural, and spiritual ideas over the course of the century.

The multiple facets of mysticism manifested across a diverse range of styles, aesthetics, and movements. As esotericism saturated America, Europe and Britain, the Romantics and Symbolists responded to mystical beliefs expressed in Swedenborgianism, Spiritualism, Theosophy and Occultism while drawing on exposures to Eastern religions. Reinterpretations of pagan mysticism prompted the rediscovery of Folkloric primitivism. Meanwhile, Catholic and evangelical revivals alongside renewed interest in Medievalism revitalised Christian themes. In practice, the proliferation of occult revivals at the fin-de-siècle permeated the thematic programmes of artists and composers. Wagner’s operas underscored the link between music, myth, and mysticism through the synthesis of the arts: the Gesamtkunstwerk. Subsequently, Syncretism in mystical philosophies was paralleled by formal correspondences in the visual arts, especially in their ‘rhythmical’ qualities. Synesthesia would instigate the development of abstraction.

This session invites submissions that extend on these ideas by investigating how the interconnectedness between art and music was able to evoke and be inspired by mysticism. Papers drawn from other periods that examine the origins and newer forms of mystical appropriations will be considered, and those which incorporate perspectives across the spectrum of visual culture and musicology are particularly welcome.

Ontario Art Education Association Annual Conference 2017: Social Artistry: Art for Change Ontari... more Ontario Art Education Association Annual Conference 2017: Social Artistry: Art for Change

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education: Unviversity of Toronto

Berlioz, Wagner and Schumann formed the holy trinity in Fantin-Latour’s musical pantheon of grand... more Berlioz, Wagner and Schumann formed the holy trinity in Fantin-Latour’s musical pantheon of grands maîtres. He was no dilettante who dabbled in music to be au-courant: he was ‘un peintre mélomane’. However, it was not until the mid 1860s that he uprooted his allegiance to Courbet’s Realism and began his headlong immersion into the world of music experientially, intellectually and creatively. The outlet for his musicality was his ‘imaginative’ genre: a score of lush and atmospheric lithographs, pastels, and paintings unified by a pervasive, vaporous mist. A distinct veil of vagueness is deliberately interposed between the beholder and the artist’s fantastic visions. Inarguably, the type of subject matter pre-determined his mode of technical execution and I posit that Fantin-Latour developed a unique style that belonged exclusively to the domain of music. Above all, these stylistic effects were simulations or evocations of music’s inherent vagueness: a defect that only became a virtue when purely instrumental music was deemed superior by formalist proponents of ‘absolute music’. The artist’s musical aspirations translated into an aesthetic of vagueness.

Reviews by Corrinne Chong

Exhibition review of "Frédéric Bazille and the Birth of Impressionism," National Gallery of Art, ... more Exhibition review of "Frédéric Bazille and the Birth of Impressionism," National Gallery of Art, Washington dC, Musée du Luxembourg, Paris, April 9-July 9 2017. Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide (forthcoming- Fall 2017)

More often identified with his images of landscapes, marine scenes, and gardens, the diverse role... more More often identified with his images of landscapes, marine scenes, and gardens, the diverse roles which buildings and manmade structures played in Claude Monet's art have received considerably less critical attention and hence, the impetus behind The Credit Suisse Exhibition: Monet and Architecture at the National Gallery. Confidently proclaimed in the press release materials as a "rare thing" and a "landmark show," the exhibition admirably lived up to the marketing hyperbole for the most part. As the first monographic exhibition of the Impressionist's paintings to be staged in London for more than two decades, it justifiably merited the publicity and the unanimous praise in the British press, but the extent of its "unique and surprising" angle might not have been fully appreciated by audiences familiar with the artist's iconic images of Rouen Cathedral, the Palace of Westminster, and the vast iron-clad roof of the Gare St. Lazare. However, as the organizing curator Professor Richard Thomson (University of Edinburgh) explained in an interview, the "new" which Monet and Architecture brings to the scholarship and the attention of visitors, is a reappraisal of Monet's pictorial practice through the investigation of the "different aspects and uses of architecture" in his work. [1] To that end, representations of motifs ranging from rustic Dutch windmills to majestic palazzi were thematically categorized under Thomson's conceptual framework of "The Village & the Picturesque," "The City & the Modern," and "The Monument & the Mysterious." These thematic essays addressed Monet's responses to a society that was rapidly undergoing transformative political, cultural, and technological changes during his lifetime. Spread across seven rooms in the Sainsbury Wing galleries, the panoramic scope of the exhibition encompassed over seventy-seven canvases spanning Monet's prolific career from his early beginnings in his hometown by the Normandy coast in the 1860s-70s to the labyrinthine canals of Venice in 1908. Set against an industrial grey ground, the modern typeface and minimalist title on the curvilinear entrance wall boldly announced the exhibition's overarching theme (fig. 1). The introductory précis on the text panel highlighted the pictorial, picturesque, and psychological facets of architecture in Monet's oeuvre. Nearby, a stand containing booklets in multiple languages replaced traditional wall labels. These were content rich and included both a chronology and maps pinpointing where Monet worked throughout Europe, but in light of his practice of returning to the same motifs years apart, labels with dates would have offered visitors a clearer chronological sense. "The Village and The Picturesque I" was the first of three rooms that illuminated the affinities between Monet's landscapes and the picturesque: an aesthetic tradition originating in eighteenth-century England which extolled the beauty

Lauded as the "peintre des danseuses," [1] no other artist has delved into the world of ballet as... more Lauded as the "peintre des danseuses," [1] no other artist has delved into the world of ballet as profoundly as Edgar Degas (1834-1917). For four decades, the ballet fired his creative impulses, inspiring a corpus of nearly 1300 works of art. Be it the characterization of the broad cast of dramatis personae he encountered, the technical aspects of a dance position, or the intricacies of backstage sexual politics, he captured these aspects with the acuity and familiarity of an insider. Organized by the Musée d'Orsay, the Musée de l'Orangerie, and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, this exhibition celebrates the 350th anniversary of the Opéra de Paris, which, in addition to being the primary opera company of France, is also the country's primary ballet company. Degas at the Opéra, which opened in Paris last fall, is not the first exhibition to explore the artist's passion for ballet, but it is the most comprehensive, immersive, and lavish one to date, and it adds to his ballet pictures those of opera and music. [2] Spanning ten thematically and chronologically organized rooms, the Musée d'Orsay showcased over two hundred works, including sculptures, fans, architectural dioramas, and other exclusive loans of rarely seen objects from the vaults of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. This panoramic exhibition proposes that many of Degas's most audacious and groundbreaking innovations came in response to the ballet. As established in the introductory text panel and catalogue by Musée d'Orsay curators Leïla Jarbouai, Marine Kisiel, and Henri Loyrette, and the National Gallery of Art's Kimberly A. Jones, the Opéra was a "laboratory," a "veritable catalyst" for Degas's boldest pictorial Chong: Degas à l'Opéra Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 19, no. 2 (Autumn 2020) 134 inventions and technical experimentations across various media. There, he drew from an endless wellspring of subject matter, mixing and matching motifs observed in situ or conceived in the studio. Thus, closely entwined with this analogy of the Opéra as laboratory was the notion of artifice. As the panel introducing the exhibition explained, "Degas rejects painting from nature, and this transmutation takes place in the studio, filtered by memory, and enriched by his imagination. Hence, while his Opéra may well appear real, it is never true to life." Experimentation and synthesis were at the heart of Degas's enterprise-an assertion underscored by the location of the largest gallery, "The Opera, Technical Laboratory," at the very center of the exhibition's floorplan. At the entrance, a large vinyl reproduction of Degas's The Curtain (ca. 1880) greeted visitors (fig. 1). In the image, ominous men in black, wealthy subscribers to the opera with access to its backstage, prowl amidst the painted shrubbery on the scenery flats, preying upon young dancers, hinting at a nefarious undercurrent at the ballet explored later in the exhibition. The first gallery, entitled "Genetics of Movement," opened with a sunny scene of ancient Greece: Young Spartan Girls Challenging Boys also known as Spartan Girls Exercising (ca. 1860-62/1880; fig. 2). Partly based on Plutarch's Life of Lycurgus, this anchor painting provided the entry point that elucidated the link between classical sources and Degas's dance vocabulary. During his three-year Italian sojourn (July 1856-April 1859), Degas immersed himself in the study of Hellenistic sculpture and Old Masters such as Masaccio, Giotto, Mantegna, and Michelangelo. He also dedicated time to life-drawing at the Villa Medici, where Gustave Moreau instilled in him a new appreciation for colorists like Titian, Veronese, and Delacroix. By the end of his trip, he had amassed an impressive portfolio of copies and studies that would serve as visual references for limitless pictorial inventions. The generous selection of Degas's early figure drawings underlined the inherited traditions in his approach to the human body (fig. 3). While these works invoked iconic ancient sculptures such as the Borghese Gladiator, Diana of Galbi, and Hermes Fastening his Sandal, they simultaneously prefigured the staple motifs in his ballet repertoire, such as a ballerina's adjustment of her shoulder strap or a yawn synchronized with an outstretched arm. The integration of Degas's sketches of dancers revealed his use of classical quotations with their quotidian gestures and poses (fig. 4). To quote Jarbouai from her summation of Spartan Girls Exercising: "What we have are recollections of this classic piece of Greek sculpture [the Borghese Gladiator], refracted through the intensely real presence of a live model" (49). The London painting also reflected the artist's respect for the petits rats of the Opéra, who embodied the athleticism, strength, discipline, and rigorous training of their Spartan predecessors. [3] On the opposite wall, the Copy after Mantegna's 'Crucifixion' offered additional insight into the sources for Degas's truncated forms, dynamic figural groupings, and compositional space. As Loyrette aptly notes in the catalogue, the artist's history paintings from the 1860s can be construed as a "dress rehearsal" for his future opera pictures (31).

Ontario Art Education Association Annual Conference 2017: Social Artistry: Art for Change Ontari... more Ontario Art Education Association Annual Conference 2017: Social Artistry: Art for Change

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education: Unviversity of Toronto

From Delacroix’s fixation on achieving absolute harmony in painting to Kandinsky’s aspiration to ... more From Delacroix’s fixation on achieving absolute harmony in painting to Kandinsky’s aspiration to reach mystical heights, many visual artists have embraced music as the model art form to emulate. In the 19th century, music was accorded special prestige for its unique power to convey the subjective experience through developments in form, harmony, tone, and counterpoint, among other elements. Co-taught by an art historian and a musicologist, this interdisciplinary course explores the relationship between painting and music by examining the formal analogies between the two arts through visual examples and musical excerpts. An overview of aesthetic principles from the Romantic era to early modernism provides insight on music’s unprecedented impact on painting during this time.

From the playful boudoir scenes of the Rococo to the provocative working-class models of the avan... more From the playful boudoir scenes of the Rococo to the provocative working-class models of the avant-garde, this course explores the critical transformation of the nude throughout the long nineteenth century (1750–1914).

At the start of the mid-nineteenth century, artists began to challenge the Classical ideals upheld by the French Academy. Progressive painters like Gustave Courbet and Édouard Manet freed the nude from a narrative context, resituated it within a contemporary setting, and disrupted standards of beauty through naturalistic representations of the naked body.
This shift towards reality coincided with formal innovations that ushered in the emergence of modernism. Throughout the course, we will also consider the complicated relationship between the nude, Orientalism, race, and the voyeuristic gaze.

Scenography and Art History, 2021

This thesis chronicles the development of Henri Fantin-Latour’s identity as a peintre-mélomane. I... more This thesis chronicles the development of Henri Fantin-Latour’s identity as a peintre-mélomane. Its purpose is to investigate how his multi-sensory impressions of music, particularly during performances of Richard Wagner’s operas and Hector Berlioz’s musical-dramatic works, would materialize into an aesthetic of vagueness. I examine the manner in which the scenic, acoustic, and acousmatic conditions in his physical environment heightened his awareness of a poetic and palpable sense of vagueness. I postulate that he aspired to simulate the sensorial aspects of his musical experiences in his operatic interpretations, lieder-inspired images, and allegorical fantasies. Through his inventive experimentation with lithography and his adaptation of painting techniques by his favorite old masters (most notably Eugène Delacroix), he developed a distinct facture that imbued his atmospheric prints, pastels, and paintings with an ineffable quality of vagueness. The correspondence between the auditory sensation, visual perception, and formal expression of the vague is also reflected in the picturesque language and musical nomenclature invoked by the contemporary criticism. The elusive sense of the musically vague in Fantin’s imaginative genre was a conspicuous leitmotif in the Salon reviews. An intertextual comparison between the musical discourse of the time and the critical reception of his artworks reveals absolute music to be a model of emulation. In light of music’s centrality in Fantin’s artistic enterprise, the conclusion explores the extent of Berlioz’s and Wagner’s aesthetic influence on his theory and practice

Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide, 2017

Echoing the general verdict on his friend Henri Fantin-Latour's ambiguous historiographical posit... more Echoing the general verdict on his friend Henri Fantin-Latour's ambiguous historiographical position, "the oeuvre of Frédéric Bazille is unclassifiable."[1] This conclusion, drawn from the exhibition catalogue for Frédéric Bazille: Prophet of Impressionism, similarly summarizes the painter's status in art historical periodization. Killed in combat at Beaune-la-Rolande during the Franco-Prussian war, the career of the twenty-eight year old artist who had assuredly declared, "As for myself, I'm sure not to get killed, I have too many things to do in this life," would never reach maturity (19). The brevity of his life and hence, a truncated body of work, largely accounts for his relatively obscure name. The retrospective Frédéric Bazille and the Birth of Impressionism, which closed on July 9, 2017 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, aspired to resolve this. Organized in partnership with the Musée Fabre and the Musée d'Orsay, the exhibition drew together the world's three largest collections of the artist's paintings: no other exhibition of this scale and depth had been mounted in the United States since the Brooklyn Museum's retrospective nearly a quarter of a century ago. Although Bazille was often relegated to the periphery as a dilettante and occasional benefactor to his artist friends, the co-curators Michel Hilaire (Musée Fabre), Paul Perrin (Musée d'Orsay), and Kimberly A. Jones (National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC) cast him as a central actor in the genesis of Impressionism. Forty-six of his paintings were thematically organized to underscore his active engagement with the modern ideals and aesthetic issues of the avant-garde. The juxtaposition of his works with those of his contemporaries such as Gustave Courbet, Claude Monet, and Auguste Renoir among others, illuminated their affinities and divergences across a multiplicity of genres. Above all, considered groupings between comparable pieces highlighted the distinguishing elements of Bazille's pictorial vocabulary and technical methods. Eugène Delacroix, Camille Corot, and Théodore Rousseau were also represented to pay homage to the masters who influenced his early artistic formation. Collectively, the

Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide, 2018