The performance of art : Whistler, Wilde, & the "Ten o'clock" lecture

Whistler's « Ten O'clock » was presented in London on February 20,1885, at the late-night hour named in the title. Although usually referred to as a lecture, Whistler himself rejected that term as too dour and pedantic - and certainly too pedestrian - to convey the spritely elegance of his monologue, which assailed everything he regarded as adverse to the independent production and proper appreciation of art.

The Performance of Art examines how and why Whistler took to the podium to declare an end to the publics participation in art, and reveals the role played in the episode by the comparatively unaccomplished Oscar Wilde. A close reading of the « Ten O'clock, » long neglected as a work of literature in its own right, analyzes the lecture's rhetorical structure and interprets its meaning in the context of its time and the authors biography. Whistler's manifesto not only illuminates his own works and aesthetic philosophy but presages the coming rupture between fine art and popular appreciation.