The Social Context of James Ensor’s Art Practice

“Vive la Sociale”: This rousing, revolutionary statement, written on a bright red banner across the top of James Ensor’s monumental painting Christ’s Entry into Brussels in 1889, served as a visual manifesto and call to action by the Belgian artist (1860-1949) who saw his art as central to the cultural discourse of modern Belgium.This provocative public declaration captures the innovative approach of this original survey, which highlights the social concerns and cultural encounters of James Ensor's art as he navigated a rapidly modernising Belgium; it's colonial presence in Africa, its expanding industry, and its growing nationalism. Rather than the alienated and traumatized Expressionist given preference in modern art history, Ensor is presented here as an artist of agency and purpose whose art practice engaged the issues and concerns of middle class Belgian life, society and politics and was informed by the changing values of class, race and gender of his time. Now available in paperback, this timely, nuanced reading of the art and career of this often misunderstood “artist’s artist” invites a re-evaluation not only of Ensor’s social context and expressive critique but also his unique contribution to modernist art practice. Lavishly illustrated with colour images of Ensor's bold figurative paintings, this book will be an important resource for students of modernism. Given Ensor's legacy of resistance, self-fashioning and performance through boundary-breaking art practice, his work remains all the more relevant today.