Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp

28 September 2024 to 19 January 202

On the occasion of the Ensor Year 2024, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA) presents the exhibition In Your Wildest DKMSKA holds the largest Ensor collection in the world. Owing to the Ensor Research Project, the museum has taken a leading role in researching the artist's oeuvre for many years now. This provides the perfect context for showcasing Ensor’s work. In Your Wildest Dreams. Ensor Beyond Impressionism invites visitors into a colourful universe of visions, masquerades and satire. But there is more. It is the first time that an exhibition shows Ensor's work so grandly, and alongside that of artists who inspire him and with whom he is eager to compete. Even if those competitors are Claude Monet, Edvard Munch or Édouard Manet.

Skeletons Warming Themselves, 1889

James Ensor, Belgian

“Never before have top works by Ensor been juxtaposed with other Impressionists in this way, and it is precisely this international context that allows the specific qualities of Ensor's art to be even more fully appreciated. Important loans from, among others, the MoMA in New York and the National Gallery in London, reflect KMSKA's strong international positioning in the global museum ladscape.”  - Luk Lemmens, chairman KMSKA vzw

Ensor Beyond Impressionism

In Your Wildest Dreams. Ensor Beyond Impressionism enters the creative mind of James Ensor as a pioneering artist who transcends his own epoch. He is fiercely ambitious and aspires to be the leader of the Belgian avant-garde. Early on, he introduces influences of established French impressionists into his work, such as Édouard Manet, Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. But Ensor would not be Ensor if he did not stray from the well-trodden path, to strike out in his own direction. Works such as Adam and Eve Expelled from Paradise show that he picks up certain elements from Impressionism, such as a bright colour palette. However, Ensor is not interested in showing the beauty of the world; he just wants to convey its delightful turbulence on canvas. His experimental voice thus gains prominence.

Zelfportret met bloemenhoed - James Ensor, Mu.ZEE1883

Ensor as rebellious gamechanger

With works such as Christ Walking on Water and The Temptation of St Anthony, his artistic adventure really gathers momentum. Despite a deep interest in Impressionism, Ensor tries to break through its limitations. The expressive power of his colours and a preference for strikingly whimsical design, among others, demonstrate this. He also lets his imagination run wild, including wilder visions and wildest dreams, resulting in grotesque, terrifying yet hilarious iconography. His interest in the unfathomable links Ensor to painters such as Edvard Munch or Odilon Redon. Ensor is also struck by late 19th-century popular culture, generating, among other things, his use of the striking carnival masks, with which he wants to expose rather than conceal their wearers. In Your Wildest Dreams. Ensor Beyond Impressionism therefore shows the modern master at his most satirical, an aspect long underestimated. His world is one marked by radical contrasts. He surprises with the comic, morbid, wild and at the same time refined nature of his work, and thus develops into a player who rewrites the existing rules of art, rather than breaking them.

“The unique approach to In Your Wildest Dreams. Ensor Beyond Impressionism makes it possible to follow the painter in his extraordinary artistic development. Never before have his technique, subject matter and, above all, turbulent trajectory been studied in this way. We see that Ensor does not go in search of the essence of art; rather, his essence is precisely that whimsical unpredictability, which makes him constantly explore new paths. In this exhibition, the visitor is taken into his wonderful world in a captivating way.” – Dr. Herwig Todts, curator

Jules Schmalzigaug. Futurismo!

The pioneering nature of Ensor's work also left its impression on young artists from Brussels such as Rik Wouters and Jules Schmalzigaug. Together with Ensor, they make up Belgium's big three modern colourists. It is therefore no coincidence that the KMSKA, from 28 September 2024 and thus alongside In Your Wildest Dreams. Ensor Beyond Impressionism, also presents an evocative exhibition on Schmalzigaug in the print room. In Jules Schmalzigaug. Futurismo! this avant-garde artist is highlighted in all his aspects. Schmalzigaug was a pivotal figure in Belgian modernism and was the only Belgian artist to penetrate the core of Italian and international Futurism. Recently, the museum was honoured to add a donation to its sub-collection, consisting of no less than 44 drawings, four sketchbooks, an important preliminary study, a lithograph, a painting, personal photographs and an archive collection of manuscripts and letters by the painter. Consequently, in addition to James Ensor and Rik Wouters, KMSKA now holds the largest collection of Jules Schmalzigaug worldwide.

“Thanks to the generous donation of Ronny and Jessy Van de Velde, the museum was able to complete its Schmalzigaug collection. This closes the circle, because with the largest collections in the world of Ensor, Wouters and Schmalzigaug, the KMSKA can call itself the ultimate home of the three Belgian colourists. The Ensor Year is therefore the ideal occasion to shine an extra spotlight on these artists.” - Carmen Willems, general director KMSKA vzw

Ensor Research Project

Not only does In Your Wildest Dreams. Ensor Beyond Impressionism confirm and rediscover the artist's enduring relevance. The KMSKA is also providing his research project with its proper place in the exhibition. Thanks to a lasting collaboration with the University of Antwerp, the Ensor Research Project enables us to gain fundamental material-technical insights into Ensor's artistic course changes. Using the latest technologies such as a 3D microscope and an MA-XRF scanner, it examines how the artist builds or just changes his compositions, which pigments he uses and why his approach makes him so unique. With the aid of screens, visitors can dive into the layers of paint, experiencing for themselves how troublesome cherries can be on a canvas. Concurrently, you can follow how Ensor uses very different sources of inspiration to form one powerful image. With this progressive approach, the KMSKA is therefore in line with leading international research projects such as the study of The Night Watch or The Mystic Lamb. In In Your Wildest Dreams. Ensor Beyond Impressionism, the exploration of Ensor's creative mind therefore reaches unseen heights - or rather profundity.

A festive launch

With the exhibitions In Your Wildest Dreams. Ensor Beyond Impressionism and Jules Schmalzigaug. Futurismo! the KMSKA is celebrating two cultural milestones. The museum invites everyone on 28 and 29 September for a festive opening weekend. Both in the museum square and in the museum garden, you will imagine yourself as part of the effervescent universe of Ensor. The programme includes sparkling live music, open-air theatre and crazy circus performers, as well as numerous workshops and guided tours. The Lambermontmartre painting market will also descend on the museum square with a special Ensor edition.