CALACATTA GOLD MARBLE
THE WILD DREAMS OF JAMES ENSOR
Antwerp celebrates the artist known for his masks with a series of eclectic exhibitions investigating the various aspects and influence of his paintings
by Micaela Zucconi
To side, James Ensor, Self-portrait with Flower Hat, oil on canvas, dated 1883-1888, inspired by the self-portrait with straw hat by Madame VigéeLebrun, 1782 (now held in the National Gallery, London)
Mu.ZEE of Ostend collection, photo: Adri Verburg
side, James
The
Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, Communauté Flamande Collection.
(Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, KMSKA)
Left, James Ensor, The Drunkards, 1883, from the artist’s Impressionist period. Belfius Art Collection
“Often driven by contrary winds I have sailed in fantastic regions”, said James Ensor (18601949). With an English father and Belgian mother, he spent his life in Ostend, his native city, and Brussels, with a few interludes in Paris. The “fantastic regions” are above all those that animate the numerous ironic, grotesque and sometimes macabre works for which he is most famous. These were preceded by a period of tireless experimentation followed by a radical changes, permeated by the ideas of the avant-garde of the time, when Paris was the beacon of the new. This stylistic evolution made him a pioneer of modernism. Belgium made the 75th anniversary of his death with a series of initiatives, starting with the opening of the museum in his Ostend home in 2023 and the inauguration of four shows in Antwerp. “In Your Wildest Dreams. Ensor Beyond Impression” at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA), home of the world’s largest collection of the Belgian artist’s works (39 paintings, over 600 drawings, engravings and archive materials). The support of international loans from London, New York and Paris has enabled a precise reconstruction of Ensor’s artistic evolution, developing along a theme with theatrical evocations. “James Ensor was a rebel, his approach to Impressionism was always animated by an intention to go beyond, to break the rules. In fact he transformed it into something radical. He anticipated Expressionism and Surrealism. With our Ensor Research Project we
To
Ensor,
Oyster Eater, oil on canvas, 1882, which was shown at the annual Les XX Twenty exhibition in 1986.
James Ensor, L’Intrigue, 1890, oil on canvas. Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, Communauté Flamande Collection
Above, James Ensor, The Skeleton Painter, 1896, oil on panel. Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, Communauté Flamande Collection. Left, James Ensor, Skeletons Warming Themselves, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas
have discovered new aspects of his creative process and personality. For example, he could never be described as a misanthrope – he was, in fact, surrounded by friends and enjoyed significant female friendships, although he never married. Women, beginning with those in his family, always played an important role in his life”, says Herwig Tods, exhibition curator and a specialist in the artist’s life and work. Before discovering his true artistic path, Ensor researched how to give greater intensity to light and colours, looking towards Édouard Manet and Claude Monet,
Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Gustave Courbet’s realism. In 1886, he took part – with “The Oyster Eater” of 1882 – at the Winter salon of the avant garde circle Le XX , in company with the now well-established French Impressionists. He soon presented his vision, no longer painting only what we can see, as the Impressionists did, but also the darkest and most fantastic, in the style of Odilon Redon, to the rarified light reminiscent of William Turner. Then something happened, a clear break, the focus of the second part of the exhibition – his “wildest dreams”
Left,
To side, James Ensor, The Fall of the Rebel Angels, Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, Communauté Flamande Collection
reverberates with echoes of the Flemish masters Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Brueghel, and then Francisco Goya. But there is more. “Ensor also observed popular culture, carnival masks, magic lanterns and satirical shows”, transforming the scenes he painted into theatrical spectacles. It seems that he drew inspiration for his grotesque characters from tourists visiting Ostend, where he lived and where his family ran a souvenir shop. His masks reveal the nature of humankind, and the 20th-century German avant-garde, especially Emile Nolde and George Grosz, soon discovered
To side, James Ensor, Adam and Eve Expelled from Paradise, 1887. Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, Communauté Flamande Collection. Above, James Ensor, Masks Confronting Death, 1888. MoMA, New York. Mrs Simon Guggenheim Fund, 1951. From the exhibition “In your wildest dreams. Ensor beyond impressionism”, KMSKA (28 September 2024 -19 January 2025).
his work. The subject is taken up once again in “Masquerade, Make-up & Ensor” at the MoMu (Museum of Fashion, Antwerp) in an exhibition exploring his contemporary significance, while the FOMU (Museum of Photography) compares him to another rebel, the photographer Cindy Sherman, with her costumes and fashion commissions (until 2/2/2025). Finally, Ensor’s unmissable graphic adventures in engravings and prints could be seen at the Plantin-Moretus Museum, with “Ensor’s States of Imagination” (until 19/1/2025).