James Ensors Intrigue
When I first looked at The Intrigue by James Ensor, I knew that it would be the painting that I did my research paper on. Before entering the museum, I was thought that it would be very difficult for me to write a 5 page paper on one work of art but after stepping into the Minneapolis Institute of Art, I changed my mind immediately. There were so many beautiful works there that, at first, I was overwhelmed. I was really glad that we decided to go to the MIA at the last minute. We were going to go to the Walker, but, The MIA is free and I haven’t been there in a long time. We walked through the Middle Eastern art section first, which was ok, but not really my taste. Then we got into more of the modern works of art and some of them were pretty interesting. That is when I saw the Intrigue for the first time. My girlfriend thought it was really ugly. I thought that it was beautiful. I thought it was really cool how there were so many different characters in the painting. I also liked how the characters looked strange and a little frightening. I thought the background about the painting was very interesting as well, but I will get into that later. First I would like to share a little about the life and time of James Ensor.
Piper 2
Baron James (Sidney Eduard) Ensor was a Belgian artist who lived from 1860-1949.(Wikipedia 2010) He spent almost his whole life in his home town Ostend Belgium and he was trained as a painter in Brussels. He Joined a group called Les XX (The 20). The Les XX brought in works from contemporary French artists into Brussels and fought for more artistic freedom. His early works used dimmer colors and were more of the realist style. (The Art of Being Human 152)Many of his later works have depictions of skeletons, masks, phantoms and demons. He was a cynical man who became more so with age. I would say that he was a rebel of his time. He hated the socialite culture of Belgium and showed it through his works. His works were
Piper 2
Baron James (Sidney Eduard) Ensor was a Belgian artist who lived from 1860-1949.(Wikipedia 2010) He spent almost his whole life in his home town Ostend Belgium and he was trained as a painter in Brussels. He Joined a group called Les XX (The 20). The Les XX brought in works from contemporary French artists into Brussels and fought for more artistic freedom. His early works used dimmer colors and were more of the realist style. (The Art of Being Human 152)Many of his later works have depictions of skeletons, masks, phantoms and demons. He was a cynical man who became more so with age. I would say that he was a rebel of his time. He hated the socialite culture of Belgium and showed it through his works. His works were
Cited: 1. Bishop, Phillp E. A Beginner’s Guide to The Humanities. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall 2010. Print 2. Janaro, Richard and Thelma Altshuler. The Art of Being Human. New York: Pearson Longman. Print 3. Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN 2010. Print 4. Artsnet Minnesota. James Ensor Intrigue, About the Art. Web. 2010 5.Wikipedia. James Ensor. Web. 2010