Susan M. Canning – författare

“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, stood 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.Serving, too, as inspiration for this original survey of Ensor’s art, which highlights the social concerns and cultural contexts of the artist as he navigated a rapidly modernising Belgium, this statement situates Ensor in the unique social contexts of his time. Ensor’s interaction with the Belgian art world, and, in particular, the avant-garde art group Les XX and engagement with progressive art, science, politics and current events are discussed in-depth. Combined with analysis of the artist’s self-portraits and depictions of women, this new study presents Ensor 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 artists, scholars and those interested in European modernism. Given Ensor's legacy of resistance, self-fashioning and performance through boundary-breaking art practice, his work remains all the more relevant today.

“Vive la Sociale”: This rousing, revolutionary statement, written on a bright red banner across the top of James Ensor''s Christ''s Entry into Brussels in 1889, served as a visual manifesto and call to action by the Belgian artist (1860-1949), one that announced with an insistent, public voice the centrality of his art practice to the cultural discourse of modern Belgium. This provocative declaration serves as the title for this new study of Ensor''s art focusing on its social discourse and the artist''s interaction with and at times satirical encounter with his contemporary milieu. 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 values and class, race and gendered perspectives of his time. Ensor''s radical vision and oppositional strategy of resistance, self-fashioning and performance remains relevant. This book with its 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.

“Vive la Sociale”: This rousing, revolutionary statement, written on a bright red banner across the top of James Ensor''s Christ''s Entry into Brussels in 1889, served as a visual manifesto and call to action by the Belgian artist (1860-1949), one that announced with an insistent, public voice the centrality of his art practice to the cultural discourse of modern Belgium. This provocative declaration serves as the title for this new study of Ensor''s art focusing on its social discourse and the artist''s interaction with and at times satirical encounter with his contemporary milieu. 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 values and class, race and gendered perspectives of his time. Ensor''s radical vision and oppositional strategy of resistance, self-fashioning and performance remains relevant. This book with its 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.