Book Description
Few artists of the late nineteenth century produced an oeuvre more bizarre, ironic, profound and rich in interpretive possibilities than the Belgian painter James Ensor. Ensor lived from 1860 until 1949, and has enjoyed newfound fame since 1994 as the subject of the They Might Be Giants song "Meet James Ensor." His unusual work challenged standards of taste and technique by mingling the influence of his Belgian forbears, Bosch and Breugel, with a bright, loosely brushed impressionist style. Ensor offered unmistakable symbols of the absurdity of existence--particularly in portraying the tourists who flooded his native Ostend on their vacations, whom he caricatured mercilessly as clowns and skeletons, or concealed behind brightly colored carnival masks. His painting influenced both German Expressionists and French Surrealists. When seen in the light of new trends towards the grotesque and comic in contemporary painting, his work obtains new currency. James Ensor includes some eighty masterpieces on canvas and sixty works on paper from international museums and private collections, with key pieces from each of his creative periods. Particular attention is paid to his late work, long neglected by scholarship, in order to prepare the ground for a re-evaluation. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Ensor Uber Alice B. Toklas
James Ensor is perhaps the most underrated artist of all the late 19th to early 20th century artists. His work progressed from (Northern) Impressionism to become the most innovative, least understood work of the times. His paintings of Masks as subconscious symbolism prefigured psychoanalysis
by decades,his use of painting as social critique was at least 20 years ahead of German Expressionism, his use of "outsider" idioms were again decades ahead of Art Brut, his work inspired late 20th century greats such as Philip Guston and Jim Nutt. This is the most comprehensive book that I have seen documenting the life and works of this Belgian master, Susan M. Canning's
essays are very insightful(as are all the essays) and the quantity and quality of the reproductions make this book indispensable for any library of Modern Art. ... Read more

Book Description
Early in his career, Belgian painter James Ensor (1860-1949) broke away from Impressionism, rejecting its prettiness in favor of an original, highly dramatic style. Incorporating elements of satire, caricature, masquerade, and the grotesque, Ensor was a sharp observer of his social and political milieu and a skilled controversialist. Bridging the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and not easily fitting into one particular movement or group, his drawings are increasingly valued for their innovative subjects and techniques, as well as the strong social criticism at their heart.

This volume, published to accompany the first major New York exhibition of Ensor's drawings, includes more than one hundred plates, most of them in color. Essays by Susan M. Canning (College of New Rochelle), Marcel De Maeyer (University of Ghent), and Robert Hoozee (Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent), along with a chronology by Xavier Tricot, serve to place Ensor's drawings in the context of both artistic and historical developments of his time and his oeuvre.

Catherine de Zegher is executive director of the Drawing Center in New York City and cocurator (with Robert Hoozee) of the exhibition "Between Street and Mirror: The Drawings of James Ensor."

Distributed for the Drawing Center ... Read more

Book Description
Norbet Hostyn,curator of the Museum of Fine Art in Ostend, has produced a fascinating and comprehensive account of the world and ideas of the by turns celebrated and vilified James Ensor (1860-1949). He offers an illuminating introduction to the artist's life and oeuvre, accompanied by a selection of fifty representative works, each comprising a large, colour reproduction and an art-historical commentary. It is the story of a striking and controversial painter who was initially the focal point of a new school, but later became an eccentric with a finely tuned sense of image and business. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Contenido, published by Editorial Contenido, S.A. de C.V. on March 1, 2000. The length of the article is 1202 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: James Ensor, pintor del espanto.(TT: James Ensor, painter of fright.)
Author: Luis Rubén González
Publication: Contenido (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 1, 2000
Publisher: Editorial Contenido, S.A. de C.V.
Page: 46

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Book Description
They're selling postcards of the hanging
They're painting the passports brown
The beauty parlor is filled with sailors
The circus is in town.
Bob Dylan, from "Desolation Row"
The Superhuman Crew brings together two visionary works of artJames Ensor's masterpiece painting Christ's Entry into Brussels in 1889 and Bob Dylan's "Desolation Row." The result is a riveting visual and verbal experience.
Ensor's huge, vibrant, and startling canvas presents a scene filled with clowns, masked figures, andbarely visible amid the swirling crowdsthe tiny figure of Christ on a donkey entering the city of Brussels. "Desolation Row," from Dylan's classic 1965 album Highway 61 Revisited, presents its own
surreal portrait of modern life in strangely similar terms. These two vast works share a vision of the contemporary world as anarchic, grotesque, and absurd, and The Superhuman Crew combines them in a surprising, thought-provoking format.This book includes a complete reproduction and numerous
details of Ensor's painting, the full text of Dylan's lyrics to "Desolation Row," and a compact disc with his recording of the song. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Truly Wonderful
A thoroughly original concept brilliantly executed. Ensor and Dylan might seem like an odd pairing, but by the time one has finished enjoying this book, s/he will have gained insights into both of the artists and the worksthat probably could not have been conveyed in any other way. A pleasantsurprise from a museum not known for originality or creativity. The Gettyshould publish more titles as memorable as this one.

A masterful combination of art and poetry
A great song, a great painting, an inventive way of putting them together. All of Dylan's greatest songs should be given this kind of treatment. ... Read more

Book Description
The brash young artist James Ensor painted Christ's Entry into Brussels in 1889 during a period of extraordinary artistic and political fomentation in his native Belgium. It is one of the most dazzling, innovative, and perplexing paintings created in Europe in the late nineteenth century,
rivaling any work of its period in audacity and ambition. Huge in scale, complex in design and execution, and brimming with social commentary, the startling canvas presents a scene filled with clowns, masked figures, and--barely visible amid the swirling crowds--the tiny figure of Christ on a donkey
entering the city of Brussels. This insightful volume examines the painting in light of Belgium's rich artistic, social, political, and theological debates in the late nineteenth century, and in the context of James Ensor's exceptional career, in order to decipher some of the painting's messages and
meanings. ... Read more