This Belgian artist has been renowned as one of the greatest innovators in European art from the end of nineteenth century. Widely regarded as a precursor of Expressionism and Surrealism, Ensor stood out from his contemporaries with his eccentric style and the rich variety of demonic images and creatures which inhabit his work. <\/p>\n
For the first time Bulgarian audiences have the opportunity to view these characters from James Ensor\u2019s graphic art. A total of 35 originals in traditional printing techniques, among which the famous series of prints The Seven Deadly Sins, as well as the two famous albums of lithographs Scenes from the life of Jesus Christ (Sc\u00e8nes de la vie de J\u00e9sus Christ) and The Gamut of Love (La Gamme d\u2019amour) outline some significant periods and themes in the work of the artist. These originals are part of the collection of KBC Group, Belgium. <\/p>\n
The whole collection covers around five centuries of Flemish art. The oldest part of the collection is exhibited at the Nicholas Rockox House Museum, which is in a Renaissance style and fully owned and maintained by KBC Group. The museum has a total of 400 works, the oldest of which is a painting by Quinten Matsijs from the year 1500, as well as some masterpieces by Rubens. <\/p>\n
In addition to this museum collection, KBC Group owns around 400 works of Flemish art from the 19th and 20th Centuries displayed at the Group\u2019s Head Offices in Belgium. The most significant artist in this collection is, without doubt, James Ensor. As well as the rich collection of his graphic art, the Group owns five of his paintings. <\/p>\n
The exhibition at CIBANK Gallery is structured as a comprehensive retrospective examination and begins with the most basic biographical information about Ensor which introduces the viewer to the artist\u2019s persona and the time in which he lived:
\nWho is Ensor? Where did he live and work? \u2013 typical self-portraits, landscapes and urban scenes from Ostend and Brussels. <\/p>\n
The nucleus of the exhibition is Social Criticism as the main theme in Ensor\u2019s art. The means and the symbolic images which he uses to criticize society\u2019s faults, create a world of surreal mythology, which is very typical for his style. Central themes of his social criticism are religion, the habits of the wealthy citizens and politics. Farce, caricature and challenging plots are present everywhere. When it comes to gaining a complete overview of the Belgian artist\u2019s work, just as important are the Masks, demons and skeletons. They appear with equal intensity in his graphic art as well as in his paintings. The themes of death and despair are transformed by him into a series of signs which consequently play an important role in provoking and inspiring the emerging at that time Impressionist movement. <\/p>\n
James Ensor was born to a British father and a Belgian mother in 1860 at Ostend, a seaside resort on the Belgian coast. He spent most of his life living in his home town with the exception of the three years when he studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels (1877 \u2013 1880). At the age of twenty he decided to leave the Academy, as he was unhappy with the excessive conservatism of traditional ideas about art which were being taught there, and returned to Ostend with the intention of giving his own particular vision free rein. At the end of the nineteenth century most of his works were dismissed by the critics as too scandalous and provocative. An example of such work is The Entry of Christ into Brussels, which is part of the current exhibition. During his lifetime his art was appreciated by no more than a handful of enthusiasts from his circle of close friends. Nowadays, however, his fame extends worldwide and he is regarded as a standard-bearer in the history of European art. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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