Intrigue: James Ensor by Luc Tuymans

Weird but fascinating exhibition at the Royal Academy of the work of the James Ensor curated by the contemporary artist Luc Tuymans.

I liked the opening section which looked at his early life in Ostend and how this affected his later work. Some of his family ran a curio shop selling seaside souvenirs and carnival objects such as masks. He also witnessed the disinterment of mass graves from the Siege of Ostend in the early 17th century to make way for building work so he would have been used to the site of skeletons. All of this helped to explain his strange later art focusing on masks and skeletons which seemed to come from nowhere.

Some of the early work reminded me of Sickert as it was a bit muddy brown in colour and atmosphere. I liked his visceral still lives such as “The Skate” from 1892. I also liked the mix of the ordinary and weird in his work. In one beautiful picture on an interior, possibly a studio, you suddenly reason the figure on the chair is a skeleton looking at a piece of china. I was intrigued by a wonderful set of weird drawings which had a feel of Blake.

You could tell this was curated by an artist and it focused on Ensor’s influences and the development of his art. I also liked the idea of including a few works by Tuyman’s picking up on some of the themes.

Closes on 29 January 2017

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