Academic Writing
‘A new turn in humanities scholarship'
— Simon Shaw Miller, Emeritus Chair of Art History, University of Bristol
'An agenda for change: both for individuals, artistically and conceptually, and for the myriad collective ways that humans dwell on the planet'
—Aaron S. Allen, Director, Environment and Sustainability Program and Associate Professor of Musicology, University of North Carolina
(Praise for The Bloomsbury Handbook to Music and Art, co-edited with Sarah Mahler Kraaz, Bloomsbury, 2023)
My writing explores the connections between art, music, and philosophy, making complex ideas accessible and relevant across disciplines.
Below is a selection of books, essays, and collaborative projects.
Bergson and the Art of Immanence
ed. John O Maoilearca and Charlotte de Mille
An immanent turn in art history
This collection of 16 essays brings 20th-century French philosopher Henri Bergson’s work on immanence together with the latest ideas in art theory and the practice of immanent art as found in painting, photography and film. It places Bergson’s work and influence in a wide historical context and applies a rigorous conceptual framework to contemporary art theory and practice.Big IdeaBergsons, Real Impact.
Music and Modernism c. 1849-1950
Music and Modernism is a collection of essays which re-evaluates the significant connections between the disciplines of music, fine art and architecture in the period covering the emergence and flowering of modernism, c. 1849–1950. Combining established scholars in the field with those at the start of their careers, this book presents an exceptional cross-section of European and American modernism through a series of detailed case-studies. Avoiding a simplistic engagement with cross- or inter-disciplinarity, the focus of attention centres on themes that became key to modernist artists and critics: association, perception, representation, subjectivity, writing and language. Accordingly, this book re-thinks modernism itself in the light of both the fine arts and music, to advocate a multiplicity of modernisms from which it is necessary for scholars to construct their own narratives.
An incredible knowledge of Modernist art is intertwined here with scholarship in Bergsonian philosophy second to none.’ – John Ó Maoilearca, Kingston Universitysession flows.
Bergson in Britain
Philosophy and Modernist Painting, c. 1890-1914
Charlotte de Mille shows that the reception of the philosophy of Henri Bergson by British artists and critics was far more wide spread and of far greater importance in the UK than has been previously thought.
Based on archival material in Paris and the US, not all previously accessed, along with primary UK sources, she opens new avenues of research and interpretation on the work of artists Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, John Duncan Fergusson and artist-writers Roger Fry and Wyndham Lewis.
De Mille demonstrates the profound impact of Bergson’s work in UK culture immediately prior to World War One. Her interdisciplinary approach integrates philosophy, art criticism and art history. An Epilogue considers the proximity of Bergson’s thought on temporality, perception, intuition and subjectivity to art history, from Alois Riegl and Aby Warburg, to practitioners today.
The Bloomsbury Handbook of Music and Art
ed. Sarah Mahler Kraaz & Charlotte de Mille
This volume brings together prominent scholars, artists, composers, and directors to present the latest interdisciplinary ideas and projects in the fields of art history, musicology and multi-media practice. Organized around ways of perceiving, experiencing and creating, the book outlines the state of the field through cutting-edge research case studies. For example, how does art-music practice / thinking communicate activist activities? How do socio-economic and environmental problems affect access to heritage? How do contemporary practitioners interpret past works and what global concerns stimulate new works? In each instance, examples of cross or inter-media works are not thought of in isolation but in a global historical context that shows our cultural existence to be complex, conflicted and entwined. For the first time cross-disciplinary collaborations in ethnomusicology-anthropology, ecomusicology-ecoart-ecomuseology and digital humanities for art history, musicology and practice are prioritized in one volume.
Articles and Book Chapters
‘Recovering The Rescue: Edward Sackville West, Benjamin Britten and Henry Moore’, Henry Moore: Shadows on The Wall, Alexandra Gerstein and Ketty Gottardo eds., The Courtauld, 2024
‘ “Dissonances in Art”: Music and the Blue Rider’, Expressionists: Kandinsky, Münter and the Blue Rider, Tate, 2024
‘Marianne Werefkin: ‘Noble Wild Lad’, Expressionists: Kandinsky, Münter and the Blue Rider, Tate, 2024
‘On the periphery? British Artists and the European Avant-garde 1886-1914’, After Impressionism, National Gallery, London, 2023
‘The Place within: Britten’s landscapes’, Britten in Context, Vicki P. Stroeher and Justin Vickers eds, Cambridge University Press, 2022
‘Pseudomorphosis: Witkacy and Spengler’,Witkacy, Seismograph of the Acceleration Age, ex. cat. Muzeum Narodowe, Warsaw, 2022
‘Debussy at the Omega Workshops’, Cross Channel Modernisms, Claire Davison, Derek Ryan and Jane A. Goldman eds, Edinburgh University Press, 2020
‘The Great War, British Perspectives’, The Great War, Muzeum Stzuki, Łódź, 2018
Bergson Round Table (contributor), Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy , Special 75th Anniversary Edition, ed. Mark Westmorland, 2017
’A kind of mental explosion’: Modernism’s Other Worlds”. Review of T.E. Hulme and the Ideological Politics of Early Modernism by Henry Mead and Modernism’s Other Work: The Art Object’s Political Life by Lisa Siragnaian. Art History, 40, February 2017
‘Grafting a dream: Henri Bergson, Claude Debussy and Henri Matisse’, Rival Sisters: Art and Music at the Birth of Modernism , James Rubin with O. Mattis eds, Ashgate, 2014 (Routledge 2018)
A full list can be found on https://courtauld.academia.edu/CharlottedeMille