James Ensor: The Complete Paintings

by Xavier Tricot, James Ensor (Artist)

Coinciding with renewed interest in James Ensor, this catalogue raisonné comes as an essential and definitive volume for Ensor buffs and all serious libraries of modern art. A legend in his own lifetime, Ensor (1860-1949) was--alongside Vincent van Gogh and Edvard Munch--a fearless independent whose work led directly to the development of German Expressionism and French Surrealism. Ensor achieved fame as the "painter of masks," and for his bizarre still lifes and grotesque carnival scenes, in harsh, contrasting, brilliant colors, evolving out of the traditional Flemish dance of death. Now, the reader can explore the Belgian painter's oeuvre thoroughly, in this opulently illustrated, full-color, slipcased catalogue raisonné. A comprehensive illustrated chronology offers additional details about the artist's life and work, and forms an integral part of this splendid, highly valuable contribution to art historical research, ensuring the legacy of a great artist who continues to inspire contemporary art.

Genres: Art

480 pages, Hardcover

First published November 30, 2009

Reviews

[XenofoneX · Rating 5 out of 5]

James Ensor, like many artists, didn't receive the artistic acclaim he was due for a long time. As a member of 'Les XX (Vingt)', a group of talented fin-de-siecle Belgian painters whose work is today getting far more attention as perhaps the most important achievement in Symbolist art, Ensor was the only one to transcend the labels. In his time, Fernand Khnopff was considered to be the creative lodestone of 'Les Vingt', and the genius whose work would change the course of creative and spiritual currents... I for one love his work; but it is James Ensor who would make the most profound impression on 20th C. art. While I await a long overdue deluxe retrospective for Khnopff, Hatje Cantz have produced one of their most stunning volumes to date.

This massive, 10.75" x 13.75", nearly 500-page tome is both a full-color chronological biography and Catalogue Raisonne of James Ensor and his paintings. Thick clothbound cover-boards with gilt-embossed titles. Sturdy, semi-gloss archival paper and smyth-sewn binding. Even a nicely designed slipcase to complete the 'deluxe monograph/Catalogue Raisonne' package. Everything was executed perfectly, every detail.

Many readers who come across a Catalogue Raisonne, which are traditionally more expensive than a regular artist's monograph (due to a print-run that is usually quite limited), are often shocked and disappointed; I recall paying a fairly large sum for a C.R. published in the 80's, expecting to own an oversized art-book that included large reproductions of all the artist's works in one luxurious volume. What I got was three or four hundred pages of black-and-white thumbnail images that were barely recognizable, each one accompanied by dry facts regarding provenance, etc.

This, fortunately, is a very different book. Xavier Tricot's 200+page biography is a detailed look into the life and art of this enigmatic personality, whose anomalous style and recurring motifs -- such as undead skeletons dressed in Belgian finery (both humorous and terrifying, frequently engaged in combat over corpses and pickled herrings), and masks, hundreds of ominous-looking masks, often based on the real ones he produced in his atelier -- made him somewhat of an Outsider Artist. His iconoclastic nature is demonstrated in some of his later and most outrageous works, depicting clergy and royalty defecating on a stage, doctors disemboweling patients, etc. This bold independence and blatant hostility toward authority, combined with a naivete to his paintings that was mostly cultivated, made him a source of inspiration for many of Modern Art's most influential figures.