Inspired by James Ensor

James Sidney Edouard Ensor was a painter and printmaker from Ostend, Belgium. He had a significant influence on the Expressionist and Surrealist movements as an associate of the art group Les XX, a creative group of twenty Belgian painters, draftsmen and sculptors formed in 1883. Although his work is distinct from that of his contemporaries, his influence is said to have been considerable on such 20th century artists as Paul Klee, Emil Nolde, George Grosz, Alfred Kubin, Wols, Felix Nussbaum, to name a few.

Ensor's early paintings, such as Russian Music (1881) and The Drunks (1883), depict realist scenes in a sober style. However, towards the end of the 19th century, his palette became brighter and his subjects increasingly bizarre and estranged. Paintings such as The Scandalized Masks (1883) and Skeletons Fighting for a Hanged Man (1891) depict figures wearing grotesque masks inspired by his hometown pagan festival, the Ostend carnival. Subjects such as carnivals, masks, puppets, skeletons and fantastical allegories are dominant in the work of Ensor's mature period. Masks were also a recurring and theatrical aspect of his still lifes, as the artist was drawn to their plastic forms, bright colors, and psycho-symbolic potential. Whether it is an apocryphal story or not, it has been said that Ensor kept skeletons in his studio and arranged them into enigmatic pictures before painting them on canvas. Discover other contemporary artists such as Ghylan Safadi and Kirsteen Titchener on Artsper that continue to confront tradition through the realization of their artwork that is inspired by the bizarre!