James Ensor Biography

A Belgian master, James Ensor achieved international fame. His portraits, which offer a grotesque vision of humanity, became the principal precursor of Expressionism and Surrealism.

Early in his career Ensor painted traditional landscapes, still lives, portraits, and interior scenes with rich color and soft light. In the mid 1880s, however, influenced by the bold color of the Impressionists and the grotesque images of the old Flemish masters, he developed vanguard themes and styles. He began to represent humanity as infected, vain, and hateful, depicting individuals as skeletons and replacing faces for carnival masks. He deliberately used strong clashing colors as well as violent brushstrokes, to underline the aggressive subjects of his work.

Ensor’s work exercised an enormous influence on 20th century painting, specifically paving the way for Surrealism and Dadaism.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS:

2006
- Masquerade: the work of James Ensor.Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight .
- Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium Exhibition.The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, Japan.
- Essay.Galerie St. Etienne, New York, USA.
- James Ensor. Fries Museum, Leeuwarden.
- Ensors Graphic Modernism. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, USA.
- Inner Worlds Outside. Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, England.

2005
- James Ensor. Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt/Main.
- Marine - Paintings of the Sea. Crane Kalman Gallery, London, England.
- Les Grands Spectacles - 120 Jahre Kunst und Massenkultur. Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria.
- 1905-2005 : Du Palais des Beaux-arts au MAMAC. Mamac - Musée dArt Moderne et Contemporain Liège, Lieja, Belgium.
- (my private) Heroes. MARTA Herford, Herford.
- La Beauté de l’Enfer. Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels, Belgium.
- James Ensor - Radierungen aus der Sammlung Hegewisch und dem Kupferstichkabinett. Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg.
- Belgique visionnaire. Palais des Beaux-Arts / Paleis voor Schone Kunsten, Brussels, Belgium.

2004
- Liège-Nancy, aller-retour. Mamac - Musée dArt Moderne et Contemporain Liège, Lieja, Belgium.
- Bitte nehmen Sie Platz, Herr Ensor! . MARTA Herford, Herford.
- Bäume. Galerie Biedermann, Munich, Germany.
- Modern Means: Continuity and Change in Art from 1880 to the Present. Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan.
- A century of belgian painting. Frissiras Museum, Athens, Greece.
- Das MoMA in Berlin. Meisterwerke aus dem Museum of Modern Art, New York. Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany.
- Multiple Räume (1) :Seele - Konstruktionen des Innerlichen in der Kunst. Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Baden-Baden.
- James Ensor - Bestandsausstellung. Sprengel Museum Hannover, Hannover, Germany .

SELECTED MUSEUM COLLECTIONS:

Musée Charlier, Brussels, Belgium.
Musée d´Art Moderne Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.
Mamac - Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain Liège, Lieja, Belgium.
Sprengel Museum Hannover, Hannover, Germany. Neue Pinakothek, Munich, Germany.
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany.
Von der Heydt-Museum Wuppertal, Wuppertal, Germany
Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Teherán, Irán.
Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel-Aviv, Israel.
The Helena Rubinstein Pavilion for Contemporary Art, Tel-Aviv, Israel
Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Kobe, Japan
Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain.
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain.
Schaulager, Münchenstein / Basel, Switzerland.
Tate Britain, London, England.
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive BAM/PFA, Berkeley, USA.
MFA - Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, USA.
Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, USA.
MoMA - Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA.