Drama and Desire, an exhibition staged by the Art Gallery of Ontario, runs from June 19 to September 26, 2010. This production is more than an exhibition, as it showcases paintings, programs and prints with sound effects and occasional performances by actors, in a theatrical setting. Viewers move from room to room, like changing scenes in a play.
The periods covered include the French Revolution, French & English Romanticism, to the beginning of the 20th century; from 1789-1914. There are pieces on loan from all over the world including works from the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the V&A and Tate in London, and various galleries and private collections in Australia, US, UK, The Netherlands and Canada.
The AGO Art Matters Blog has more detailed behind-the-scenes information about the installation of the exhibition.
French and English Romanticism
The first paintings encountered are from the period just after the French Revolution, when ideals including discipline, duty and patriotism where highly regarded. Themes such as reason over passion are depicted, as in a large painting by Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, titled Phaedra and Hippolytus. The facial expressions are extreme and stark. Phaedra, the wife of Hippolytus' father, is cursed by jealous Aphrodite to fall in love with Hippolytus, who rejects her.
These paintings were meant as moral statements against the decadence of the French court. It helps to know the stories behind the paintings beforehand in order to gain maximum appreciation from seeing these works.
In another room, Henry Fuseli’s painting, Lear Banishing Cordelia, covers almost an entire wall. With spotlights alternately trained on King Lear and Cordelia, there is a recording of actors from the Stratford Shakespeare Festival performing the play’s opening scene.
Many of the paintings are depictions of scenes or characters from plays, mostly Shakespearean. There are several examples of King Lear, Hamlet, and Lady Macbeth as well as famous actors from these periods portraying the characters. Perhaps the most striking is the John Singer Sargent painting of Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth. This larger than life painting is over seven feet tall, and has Lady Macbeth holding high the crown. She is wearing a shimmering metallic blue and green robe with a golden belt.
Dancers by Degas, Posters by Toulouse-Lautrec and more
There are quite a few works by Eugène Delacroix. A small painting of Lady Macbeth Sleepwalking is accompanied by a voice-over of an actor reading the scene. Further into the exhibition are theatrical works by well-known artists such as Edgar Degas, Edouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard, and programs by Henri Toulouse-Lautrec. Visitors will be pleased to see several paintings of Degas' dancers. There is a collection from the Victoria and Albert Museum of Aubrey Beardsley's erotic illustrations, commissioned for the Oscar Wilde play, Salome.
Frederic, Lord Leighton painted several theatrical subjects and there are two appearing in this exhibition. His painting of Romeo and Juliet, laying dead in the centre foreground, with the Montagues and the Capulets in the background, ceding their rivalry with a handshake, captures the full tragedy of the play with its realism and somber tone.
Throughout July and August, actors from CanStage’s production of Romeo and Juliet will perform on Saturdays. Artists from the Opera Atelier will perform a ballet routine called Degas and his Dancers on Sundays. There will also be other readings and performances by actors through the summer. Visitors should check the AGO website for specific times and dates.
This exhibition offers the visitor a more embedded and tantalizing taste of the theatre. With sound effects and actors voices playing all around, it has the feel, at times, of being involved in a production. For anyone who loves the stage or would like an entertaining and cultural walk through the art of the theatre, Drama and Desire will be very enjoyable.
Wendy Foster-DeGroot - Wendy has a BA(Hons) in Art History. She works in academic research administration in Canada. While living in Newfoundland in the 1980s, ...
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