Ensor and contemporaries: still life in Ostend
The 75th anniversary of Belgian artist James Ensor’s death is being marked with numerous exhibitions, the first of which is already underway in Ostend.
At Mu.ZEE, the modern and contemporary art museum in Ensor’s hometown, they are zooming in on the late artist and baron’s still life, and more broadly on still life in Belgium between 1830 and 1930.
The exhibition is called Rose, Rose, Rose à mes Yeux and is the first ever to be dedicated to Ensor’s still lifes. It features his work alongside that of less famous artists like Hubert Bellis, Philibert Cockx and Jean-Baptiste Robie.
Antoine Wiertz and Frans Mortelmans also make their appearances, as do Léon Spilliaert and, perhaps the most famous Belgian painter of all, the master of surrealism himself, René Magritte.
If all of this Belgian talent has caught your attention, be sure to get your tickets and enjoy a cultural trip to the beautiful seaside city where Ensor lived and died.
Did you know that, while 2024 is being hailed an ‘Ensor year’, the same was true of 2010 as it marked the 150th anniversary of Ensor's birth?