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5/10/2010

James Ensor

ING Cultural Centre, Bruxelles

Curated by Herwig Todts

Following the 150th anniversary of Belgian artist James Ensor, ING Belgium, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp (KMSKA) and the Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels (BOZAR) joined forces to shed new light on the work of the Ostend painter. Ensor revealed puts together drawings and paintings to clarify the thinking of the strong-willed artist and the genesis of his masterpieces.

The exhibition is based on a selection of the internationally renowned KMSKA Ensor collection. The exhibition at the ING Cultural Centre is complemented by about 30 paintings and drawings on loan from local and international public and private owners. A total of 60 paintings, 150 drawings and many more documents have been gathered.

Ensor revealed allows the visitor to take a look at the artist's studio and uses three themes to explain his way of thinking and his artistic evolution. First, the exhibition shows that Ensor was one of the most important 19th century European realist painters. His drawings, studies, still lifes, portraits and modern genre scenes show Ensor seeking to match his contemporaries and historic role models. The exhibition also focuses on the most original and innovative part of Ensor's work: his famous grotesque representations and mask scenes.

The exhibition includes some treasures that have rarely been shown: drawings, light-sensitive and vulnerable objects that usually remain safely tucked away in the drawers of a picture room. These drawings take visitors to the environment of the artist, his attic workshop in Ostend, which has remained virtually unknown. These drawings are often the key to Ensor's well-known works.

In connection with the Ensor revealed exhibition, ING Belgium has commissioned a film from the Gemsel production house entitled "Ensor’s drawings, the work behind the brushstroke", explaining the relationship between his drawings and paintings. Furthermore, ING is also supporting the production of a new hour-long documentary: "Ensortilège (The Magic of Ensor)" covering all of James Ensor’s work and produced by Gemsel Productions, Brussels and Abacaris Films, Paris.

Herwig Todts, scientific officer at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp (KMSKA) and eminent Ensor expert is the exhibition's curator.

Complementing the Ensor exhibition in the ING Cultural Centre, Place Royale, the Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, presents another facet of the artist, on the walls of its Henry Le Bœuf concert room with "Ensor, a composer and writer" – a display of autographs, publications, documents and photographs which reveals the depth and prodigious nature of a highly colourful personality.

The KMSKA collection
KMSKA bought its first Ensor painting in 1902. One hundred years later, it has the most important Ensor collection in the world, with no less than 37 paintings, more than 500 drawings and hundreds of documents.
The museum has most Ensor paintings and drawings, including some of his best works like The Oyster Eater, Adam And Eve Expelled From Paradise, Skeletons Fighting Over A Hanged Man, The Astonishment Of The Mask Wouse, Hell Above, Hell Below, Hell All Around and the well-known mask composition The Intrigue.
The collection isn't just of extraordinary quality; it also offers a complete overview of his body of work: almost all technical, stylistic and iconographic aspects of Ensor's art are represented.

ENSOR, COMPOSER AND WRITER
07.10.2010 - 23.01.2011

To complement the Ensor exhibition at the ING Cultural Centre on Koningsplein | Place Royale, the Centre for Fine Arts presents, around its main concert hall Henry Le Boeuf, the artist's hidden side: Ensor as a writer and musician. Compiled in 1951 by Walter Vanbeselaere, the then head curator of the Royal Museum in Antwerp, this exceptional collection of manuscripts, publications, documents, and photographs has never been made full use of before. It allows us to fully appreciate the many sides of this extravagant and colourful artist.
Centre for Fine Arts, around the concert hall Henry Le Boeuf
Tickets: Free acces

Co-production: ING Belgium, Royal Museum for Fine Arts Antwerp, BOZAR EXPO
Supported by: Flemish Community
In the framework of: Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union

Image: Skeletons fighting for the Body of a hanged man, 1891, canvas/painting 59 x 74 © Lukas - Art in Flanders VZW / Royal Museum for Fine Arts of Antwerp

For more information:
ING Belgium Press Office, tel. + 32 (0) 2 547 22 94 pressoffice@ing.be

Opening 6 October 2010

ING Cultural Centre
Place Royale/Koningsplein 6, 1000 Brussels
Every day from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday evenings until 9 p.m

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