James Ensor

18 June - 24 July 2005

Hours: 9:30a.m.- 5:00 p.m. ( 9:30 a.m.-19:00 p.m. on Fridays)
Entry is permitted thirty minutes before the galleries are closed.
Closed: Closed on Mondays

Admission:
Adults: 1000 (800) Yen
Students (College or senior high): 800 (600) Yen
Students (elementary or junior high school): 500 (300) Yen
(Concession for groups or advanced tickets)

James Ensor (1860-1949), has enjoyed a high reputation as one of the three great painters in the modern Belgian arts, along with Rene Magritte (1898-1967) and Paul Delvaux (1897-1994).

Ensor searched for his original style, being influenced by Belgian artistic tradition as well as his contemporary art movements. In his early works, he depicted landscapes of Ostend, his hometown, and people and things around him, with free use of subtle expression of light and shadow, Those works also remind us of influence by Realism including a French painter, Gustave Courbet. Today, we are likely to emphasis on a feature of Ensor's art as a painter of masks, however, he has another side, which is unfamiliar to us as well.

Recently it has attracted a great deal of attention that the Oriental arts from China and Japan did played an important role in the process of establishing one of his outstanding style, grotesque art, In particular we display Hokusai Manga by Katushika Hokusai and Ensor's drawings after it, and provide you an opportunity compare one with another. You will find a clue as to what Ensor acquired from them and how he developed them to his own art.

Of course, you can experience his representative paintings with skeletons, masks and imaginary creatures. Ensor depicted things, which are hidden in the heart of hearts, sometimes cynically sometimes humorously, using apparently unearthly motifs and fantastic style.

This exhibition consists of three sections and the number of works on display is 144, including oil paintings, drawings and prints from the Museum voor Schone Kunsten Ostende and the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen, and other museum and private collectors. The comprehensive exhibition of James Ensor is the first in about twenty years in Japan. We hope that this will be the best opportunity for you to understand Ensor's works throughout his career.