Walter Swennen in
Ensor en Sortie
13 January—24 February 2024
Group Exhibition at CAPS, Oostende, Belgium
CAPS brings to Ensor 2024 the gallery exhibition Ensor en Sortie featuring work by contemporary Belgian artists inspired by the figure of James Ensor and his "esprit."
James Ensor (1860-1949) is the country's earliest avant-garde artist. He continuously experiments with light, colour and form. Fierce, indomitable, innovative. He paints, draws and etches: intriguing interiors, glowing naves, wry caricatures and macabre masks. He explores all the new directions art will take in the 20th century.
The eighteen contemporary Belgian artists featured in the exhibition have something in common with James Ensor. It is not about direct influence, but an Ensorian atmosphere and "esprit". Quite a few artists seek artistic freedom: they are contrarian, individualistic, idiosyncratic in their use of color and choice of materials and are difficult to categorize. They love humour - sometimes sardonic, sometimes tongue-in-cheek - and let their imagination run wild. All characteristics we find in Ensor: he is in that respect a kind of progenitor.
With work by Nick Andrews, Yves Beaumont, Fred Bervoets, Guillaume Bijl, Koen Broucke, Vaast Colson, Ronald De Preter, James Ensor, Kati Heck, William Ludwig Lutgens, Werner Mannaers, Nadia Naveau, Guy Slabbinck, Walter Swennen, Luc Tuymans, Carole Vanderlinden, Philippe Vandenberg, Jan Van Imschoot and Peggy Wauters.