xploring the theme of "Whistler in Action," this two-day, in person symposium considers new discoveries and perspectives on multi continent-spanning artistic career of James McNeill Whistler and his legacies.
In-person, Clore Auditorium, Tate Britain.
Papers, conversations, refreshments:
18 June 2026 at 09.30–20.00
19 June 2026 at 09.30–17.00
TICKETS £5
BOOK ON EXHIBITION WEBSITE: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/whistler/whistler-exhibition-conference
Conference Schedule
Thurs 18th June
9:30 - 10:00 Registration and coffee
10:00 - 10:10 Welcome and Introduction - Isobel Muir
10:10 - 10:30 Whistler in Action - Carol Jacobi
10:30 - 10:50 Deborah Lam, ‘Whistler at Re-Work: Doing, Undoing, Redoing’
10:50- 11:10 Anastasia Belyaeva, ‘The Delicate Line: Drypoint and the Poetics of Non-finito in Whistler's Prints’
11:10 - 11:30 Elena Cooper, ‘Whistler's ‘Finish’ in Art and Law: The Story of Whistler's Portrait of Lady Eden’
11:30 - 11:50 Discussion
11:50 - 12:10 Tea and coffee
12:10 - 12:30 Elisa German, ‘Nocturnes in Blue and Sllver: Robert Walter Weir, West Point, and the Formative Years of James McNeill Whistler’
12:30 - 12:50 Alexis Clark, ‘Whistler at War’
12:50 - 13:10 Grischka Petri, ‘Classifying Whistler: The American element in the 1890s and beyond’
13:10 - 13:30 Discussion
13:30 — 14:30 Lunch
14:30 - 14:50 Jane McCree, ‘Head of a Peasant Woman’
14:50 - 15:10 Emmanuela Wroth, ‘Finette, Whistler and the “Right to Opacity’
15:10 - 15:30 Discussion
15:30 - 16:00 Tea and Coffee
16:00 - 16:20 Gabriella Macaro, ‘Illuminating Nocturne Black and Gold: The Fire Wheel’
16:20 - 16:40 Nicholas Dunn McAfee, ‘Poetry and Paint: Swinburne, Whistler, and Intermedial Abstraction’
16:40 - 17:00 Discussion
10:00 - 10:20 Corrinne Chong, ‘Société a Trois and Music’
10:20 -10:40 Marte Stinis, “Have painting do the work of music’: Whistler and the Art of Performance’
10:40 - 11:00 Clare Willsdon, ‘Voices on the Air: Whistler's prints of Paris gardens’
11:00 - 11:20 Discussion
11:20 - 11:40 Tea and Coffee
11:40 - 12:00 Aileen Tsui, ‘The Japanese Curtain in Whistler’s Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Painter's Mother’
12:00 - 12:20 Rachel Scott, '“In its own proper place": The Making of Miss May Alexander’
12:20 - 12:40 Ayako Ono, ‘Searching for Nampo Joshi: The Artistic Milieu of the Woman Behind Whistler's Screen’
12:40 — 13:00 Discussion
13:00 - 13:45 Lunch
13:45 - 14:05 Daniel Sutherland, ‘Chile and the Origins of Whistler’s Nocturnes’
14:05 - 14:25 Julieta Ogaz, ‘A Room with a View: Whistler and Valparaiso in Times of War, 1866’
14:25 - 14:45 Joyce Townsend, ‘Whistler's paintings of Valparaiso, Chile, in 1866. Joyce H. Townsend, Amy Griffin and Jane McCree’
15:20 - 15:40 Renske Suijver, ‘Following in his Footsteps. Whistler’s Legacy in the Netherlands’
15:40 - 16:00 Georgia Toutziari, ‘The Quiet Interior: Space, Silence, and Psychological Meaning in Whistler and Hammershgi’
16:00 - 16:20 Isobel Muir, ‘Idas Lees: Uncovering a Whistlerian Mystery’
16:20 - 16:40 Discussion
Supported by the Manton Foundation
Created 9 June 2026