James Ensor exhibitions open in Antwerp

James Ensor has taken over Antwerp — or at least, four of the city’s museums and art galleries.

In September 2024, four James Ensor exhibitions opened simultaneously. Diverse in how they examine the Belgian artist, they all are part of efforts to mark 75 years since his death.

Commemorations first began in Ostend, with exhibitions in the seaside city where Ensor was born opening at the tail end of 2023. But the biggest shows of this year-long season are here in Antwerp, a city which has always embraced him through extensively collecting his work.

While perhaps not a household name like his contemporaries Edward Munch or Vincent van Gogh, James Ensor is revered in Belgium and is well-known across much of Europe. His work can also be found in art collections all over the world.

Born in 1860, he is credited with re-writing the art rules of 19th century Europe by rebelling against the confines of Impressionism.

While perhaps most famous for his depiction of masks in his work — and that is certainly a theme that is fully embraced in some of the new Antwerp exhibitions — Ensor had bigger personal ambitions for his legacy: to regarded as Belgium’s leading avant-garde artist.

This dream pushed him to be a great experimenter, which ultimately led to his work being defined by strange compositions, with comical and sometimes frightening iconography.

Ultimately, James Ensor was a revolutionary, and his work continues to inspire today. A point the organisers of the Ensor 2024 season are definitely keen to get across.

So if you’re heading to Antwerp to get your Ensor-fix, these are the four main exhibitions you should be checking out.

The biggest and best of Antwerp’s four offerings is this vast show at KMSKA, or the Royal Museum of Fine Arts. It holds the largest and most diverse collection of Ensor works in the world, and many of their masterpieces are on display here.

What makes this exhibition truly special is that Ensor can be seen alongside some of his greatest contemporaries and inspirations. Works by Edouard Manet, Edvard Munch and Claude Monet are all here, via major loans from some of the world’s greatest art collections.

The broad thread that unites the huge number of rooms in this exhibition is a demonstration that Ensor’s fierce ambition to be seen as the greatest painter of all time saw him rebel hard against convention. His ‘dream’ manifested in ‘wild’ results, in a nod to the exhibition’s title.

The show understands that not all visitors will be massively familiar with Ensor’s work, meaning it’s pitched perfectly for international visitors. The result is one of the most thoughtfully presented art exhibitions of the year.

While KMSKA attempts to show that Ensor was more than just the man that painted masks, Antwerp’s fashion museum fully leans into this aspect of his output.

Work by contemporary designers and makeup artists is used to ask the question of why do we wear masks? For of course, what is make-up other than a tool to obscure what’s underneath. Diverse objects can be seen, ranging from products from Rihanna’s Fenty brand to vast experimental video works.

The best thing in the whole show is a brand new — and rather eerie — installation by fashion designer Christian LaCroix and hair stylist Cyndia Harvey. It sees a lavish Lacroix bridal gown paired with an exaggerated beehive on a mannequin. Facing a three-piece mirror but surrounded by a sheer curtain that reinforces a sense of peering into our private anxieties, the whole piece is a riff on Dickens’ Miss Havisham and our fears on ageing.

The fact that this is the first ever major solo exhibition of American photographer Cindy Sherman in Belgium is reason enough to visit. But while the link to Ensor can seem tenuous at first, it really is a great companion to KSMKA’s show. Because — like Ensor — Cindy Sherman also recognises the power of masks and disguises.

Featuring more than 100 works from the 1970s to the present, the bulk of show focusses on Sherman’s relationship with the fashion industry.

She deconstructs traditional beauty standards and shines a spotlight on the absurdity of high-fashion — often in works paid for by the major fashion houses themselves. Some of the best work here utilises elaborate makeup, masks and costumes, with the results being a clear parallel to Ensor’s disturbing characters.

The FoMu show is in two parts here, with a smaller display presenting Sherman’s early works from the late 1970s, including the experimental art from her student years that first gained her attention.

 
James Ensor was not just an experimenter in painting. Early in his career he turned his had to etching and printmaking, showing a comparable desire to push boundaries in the way he did with pigment.

This is the first time all his best and most remarkable experiments in printing have been brought together, from preparatory drawings, copper plates and unique prints on parchment and coloured satin. Many of them are from the Museum Plantin-Moretus’ own collection of 200 Ensor prints, and they’re displayed amongst the quirky historical rooms of this UNESCO World Heritage Site.

A highlight is three prints he did of his most his famous painting The Entry of Christ into Brussels, which hasn’t come on loan from the Getty in Los Angeles for these celebrations. They each show the remarkable and intriguing changes he made between each impression, and they can be seen alongside the original copper plate that made them — itself a rare survival.

• Getting there | Eurostar trains run from London St Pancras International to Bruxelles-Midi. Direct and regular trains run from Bruxelles-Midi to Antwerp and take around 50 minutes.

• Where to stay | Mercure Antwerp City Centre is located just minutes from Antwerpen-Centraal station, and is comfortable and affordable. For bigger budgets try the smart and stylish boutique Hotel Julien in the heart of the old town with Scandi-vibes and spa.

— Travel to Antwerp was provided to maxwell museums by Visit Flanders.