Volume
III
Issue 17
Summer 2001
Oscar Wilde: A Life in Six Acts
by Maria Antigone Doiranlis
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Oscar Wilde:
A Life in Six Acts |
To commemorate the centennial of Oscar Wilde's death on 30 November 1900, the British Library, with the assistance of Wilde's grandson Merlin Holland, organized a major exhibition based on his life and works. Many of the items on display, including manuscripts, photographs, paintings, theater posters and printed editions, gathered from the Library's collections and from family and private archives, were exhibited for the first time.
The exhibition is organized as if it were a play in six acts, so that you literally walk through the dramatic unfolding of the events of Wilde's life. This is achieved within the actual gallery space through the use of large-scale, diaphanous banners hanging from the ceiling, on which the viewer can read critical commentary and details pertaining to each stage of his life and to the corresponding displays. The effect is not a rigid and compartmentalized ordering, but rather an almost seamless narrative progression, with a smooth transition from each act to the next.
Before entering the exhibit, the viewer is greeted by a life-sized wax figure of Wilde himself, leaning against the wall by the ticket booth in a state of contemplation, arms folded behind him, after an image that has been memorialized by the photographer Napoleon Sarony. Prologue and Act I: The Making of Oscar Wilde begins the story, covering Wilde's early life from his birth in Dublin to academic success (he won a scholarship to Oxford) and to his first years in London, where he became known as the "professor of aesthetics." Among the objects on display in this part of the exhibit are his schoolbooks, including his Trinity College notebook, early letters, and an early autographed manuscript called "Heart's Yearning." In addition, Wilde's love of the classics and Greek ideals is made apparent in some photographs in which he sports the Greek national costume.
Another display focuses on various contemporary theories on aesthetics that were put forth by the Victorian critics John Ruskin and Walter Pater and discusses Wilde's involvement with the aesthetic movement. For instance, Ruskin believed that art was an essential part of life and was not merely to be enjoyed by the educated few, while Pater advocated "art for art's sake," a distinctly modern perception. This section of the exhibit is actually installed within a mock-up of a Victorian interior - complete with divan, rich drapery, and William Morris wallpaper - that reflects the age's new sense of beauty in art and design, its rejection of superficial decoration for harmony in color, pattern, and form, and its interest in orientalism.
Acts II through IV span the years 1882-1895 and highlight Wilde's travels through America while on his lecture tour on aesthetics and during which he was to become the object of much hostility by American journalists. Some ephemera on display include trade cards, posters, caricatures, and some of the iconic photographs of Wilde by Sarony that were taken in New York during the famous session of 1882.
"I have nothing to declare ...
except my genius."
The exhibition continues with a detailed account of his journalistic career and literary notoriety and success back in London (with The Picture of Dorian Gray, Salomé, Lady Windermere's Fan, and others), his marriage to Constance and family life, and his ensuing relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas. Photographs and printed matter are abundant and provide an extraordinary wealth of information from this period.
Finally, in Acts V and VI, Wilde's tragic downfall and the last chapters of his life are played out, from the trials and subsequent prison term, to his ultimate exile and death from meningitis in a Paris hotel. Among the many objects on view here are tiles from the floor of Wilde's cell in Reading Gaol, newspaper accounts and transcripts of the trials, a lock of hair, and even the laurel leaves that were strewn on his deathbed.
It is practically impossible to convey in a brief review the entire breadth and scope of the exhibition, unless one experiences the show in its entirety. The circumstances surrounding his life are portrayed in painstaking detail, as the exhibit goes to great lengths to situate Wilde within a very specific socio-historical context. The visitor can spend hours with the material on hand and there is definitely something that would interest everyone. However, it is the collection of photographs, in near perfect condition, that brings to life an otherwise text-heavy approach, and by the end of it, one gains a sincere familiarity with Wilde, as if he were a long-time friend. This makes the final acts perhaps the hardest to get through. The exhibition provides a unique opportunity to experience Wilde's larger-than-life persona, as he so eloquently exclaimed at customs upon his arrival in New York: "I have nothing to declare ... except my genius."
About the Author:
Maria Antigone Doiranlis studied at University College London, where she earned her Master's Degree in Art History. She now lives and works in the New York City area.
Resources:
The exhibition will open in New York City in September 2001 at the Morgan Library. For details see http://www.morganlibrary.org/exhibtions/upcoming/html/index.html#1
British Library - An overview of the exhibition can be found in the past exhibitions section at http://www.bl.uk/exhibitions/oscar
A fascinating account of a well-attended speech Wilde made in San Francisco in 1882 can be read at the site of the Museum of the City of San Francisco: http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist5/wilde.html