James Ensor

Abstract

In 2021, Kunsthalle Mannheim will dedicate a special exhibition to the Belgian painter and draughtsman James Ensor (1860-1949). With his surreal, dark images of masks and skeletons, Ensor held up a mirror to contemporary society. His works, which contain elements of the grotesque and the fantastical, are at once symbolist and forerunners of expressionism. The focal point of the exhibition is a work featuring masks and death motifs that was seized from Kunsthalle Mannheim in 1937 and is currently located in Liège, as well as "The Dead Cockerel," which was acquired in the 1950s as a replacement. Exhibition: Kunsthalle Mannheim, Germany (05.03. - 04.07.2021).