On behalf of the organizing committee, Wesleyan University and Smith
College, we are pleased to announce our symposium,

"Towards a Synaesthetic Modernity,"
to be held on
Saturday, March 29th, 2008, at Wesleyan University, 9:00am - 6:00pm.
http://modernity.wesleyan.edu/

This symposium examines the practical and conceptual exchanges between
different artistic media-and painting and music in particular-in
European art between 1860 and 1910. Revising existing narratives that
equate painterly modernism with the purity and isolation of each
artistic medium, this symposium focuses on the historical formulation of
three concepts: synaesthesia, the Gesamtkunstwerk, and the idea that all
arts aspire to the condition of music. While there has been a recent
surge in scholarship related to these three concepts, the existing
literature examines each one in isolation and normally within a specific
national framework. Synaesthesia is most often associated with the
writings of Charles Baudelaire and French modern art; studies of the
Gesamtkunstwerk most often focus on Germany and the reception of the
philosophy and music of Richard Wagner; while the elevation of music as
a dominant art form has most often been discussed within the context of
English aestheticism. This symposium seeks to make an original
contribution by examining the inter-relationship between these three
models of artistic interaction and by weighing their respective
importance to the history of painterly modernism.

The related exhibition "Music and Modernism in the Graphic Arts,
1860-1910" at the Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University, organized by
Clare Rogan, will be open from Friday, March 28 until Sunday, May 25.
Hours: Tuesday - Sunday, noon - 4:00pm.

The event will be held at The Russell House, 350 High Street,
Middletown CT 06459. If you would like to participate in the event,
please register at our website, where you will also find directions. All
talks are free and open to the public: http://modernity.wesleyan.edu/

PROGRAM SCHEDULE:

Saturday, March 29th
Coffee will be served from 9:00-9:30am

9:30-9:45am Introduction
André Dombrowski, Smith College

9:45-10:45am "Invisible Wagner"
Juliet Koss, Scripps College

10:45-11:45am "Interiorizing Wagner: the Nabis and the
Gesamtkunstwerk"
Katherine Kuenzli, Wesleyan University

Lunch break

1:15-2:15pm "Belgian Art Nouveau, or the Colonial Gesamtkunstwerk"
Debora Silverman, UCLA

2:15-3:15pm "Art, Music, Landscape: Synaesthesia and genus loci in
British Culture, 1900-1918"
Timothy Barringer, Yale University

Coffee Break

3:30-4:30pm "Listening to Der Sturm in Berlin"
Jenny Anger, Grinnell College

4:45-5:15pm "Music and Modernism in the Graphic Arts, 1860-1910"
A gallery talk at the the Davison Art Center with Clare Rogan, Curator
and Yonatan Malin, Dept. of Music, Wesleyan University

5:15-6:00pm Reception, Davison Art Center

This event has been jointly funded by Wesleyan University and Smith
College, as well as by the Departments of Art History, Music, Romance
Languages, and German Studies at Wesleyan University.

For further information, please contact Katherine Kuenzli
(kkuenzliwesleyan.edu), or André Dombrowski (adombrowsmith.edu).