{"id":51659,"date":"2012-01-10T09:05:35","date_gmt":"2012-01-10T14:05:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=51659"},"modified":"2018-10-01T13:34:20","modified_gmt":"2018-10-01T17:34:20","slug":"bcma-winter12-ensor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2012\/01\/10\/bcma-winter12-ensor\/","title":{"rendered":"Ensor lithographs coming to Museum of Art"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

“Le Christ livre aux critiques,” a colored lithograph by James Ensor.<\/p><\/div>\n

An important collection of lithographs by 19th-century Belgian artist James Ensor goes on display in the Synergy Gallery at the Bates College Museum of Art on Monday, Jan. 23.<\/p>\n

The exhibition James Ensor: ‘Sc\u00e8nes de la vie du Christ’ and other works<\/em> shows through March 18 along with a companion show, Xiaoze Xie: Amplified Moments (1993-2008)<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Xie, a Learning Associate at Bates this winter, presents a lecture about his work to formally open the exhibitions at 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 26, in Olin Arts Center’s Room 104. A reception follows.<\/p>\n

Located in the arts center at 75 Russell St., the museum is open to the public at no cost from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday (and until 7 p.m. Wednesdays during the academic year). To learn more, please contact museum@bates.edu or 207-786-6158.<\/p>\n

The Ensor exhibition presents three dozen small but striking works by an artist recognized for elevating caricature and social critique to a high art form.<\/p>\n

Although Ensor started as a realist, by the 1880s his subjects became increasingly fantastical and his palette intensely colorful. In the late 19th century he was associated with the artistic avant-garde in Belgium, notably an anti-establishment group of artists called “Les XX” (“The 20”).<\/p>\n

His well-known painting “The Entry of Christ into Brussels,” which depicts the Messiah surrounded by a grotesque mob that includes politicians and members of Ensor’s own family, is considered an important precursor to Expressionism.<\/p>\n

Though an atheist, Ensor saw Christ as a useful allegory and, increasingly from the late 1880s, used religious themes to convey his distaste for the direction he saw humanity taking.<\/p>\n

Finished in 1921, Sc\u00e8nes de la vie du Christ<\/em> (“Scenes from the Life of Christ”), is a portfolio of 32 lithographs executed from colored-pencil drawings made between 1911 and 1920. Considered perhaps his most encompassing graphic project, the portfolio epitomizes Ensor’s adaptation of the late-medieval combination of religious themes and carnival humor.<\/p>\n

Like many works in his oeuvre, Sc\u00e8nes de la vie du Christ<\/em> contrasts beauty with monstrous figures, and delicate rendering with bold and bizarre passages.<\/p>\n

The exhibition also features several etchings by the artist, including “La mort poursuivant le troupeau des humains” (“Death Pursuing a Flock of Mortals”),1896, and “La cath\u00e9drale” (“The Cathedral”), 1886.<\/p>\n

Art historian Eric Hirshler will lead informal discussions with Bates classes and students during the exhibition. Hirshler is emeritus professor of art history at Denison University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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