A monograph on James Ensor's The Entry of Christ into Brussels in 1889, a forerunner of 20th Century Expressionism
A monograph on James Ensor's The Entry of Christ into Brussels in 1889, a forerunner of 20th Century Expressionism
During 1889, Belgian artist James Ensor (1860-1949) painted a monumental canvas that would be his magnum opus: The Entry of Christ into Brussels in 1889.The work is one of the most complex paintings ever painted. It was only40 years after its completion that the monumental canvas was firstpublicly exhibited at the James Ensor retrospective at the BrusselsPalais des Beaux-Arts in 1929. Needless to say, therefore, that theexhibiting of Ensor's work in 1929 was for many a revelation. Until thenit had been seen and was known only to a limited group of visitors andinsiders.
Between 1889 and 1929, a veritable revolution had takenplace in the visual arts. Before and during World War I, Fauvism,Cubism, Futurism, Expressionism, and Dadaism all came into being. Fewexplanations can accommodate the full daring and frenzy of such apainting which chaotic composition and barbaric style seemrevolutionary, and look far beyond the early 20th century. Since thepurchase of the work in 1987 by the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles), The Entry has acquired cult status. No other work depicts the notion of belgitude so aptly as The Entry of Christ into Brussels in 1889,and yet the painting can in the first place be regarded as a somewhatquirky but striking representation of Ensor's vision of humanity.
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