Monday 4 February 2013

Meet James Ensor (Belgium's Famous Painter)



I must confess that everything I knew about James Ensor before doing this post I learned from this song by They Might Be Giants.  Thus I knew that he lived with his mother and the torments of Christ (who make great roommates!).  I don't know much more now that I have looked him up, but I did discover that he was a vindictive, sarcastic bastard who was obsessed with “artistic revenge”, and really that makes me like him all the more.

Thus we have this painting, "Les cuisiniers dangereux" (The Dangerous Cooks). 

(Source)

This evidently satirizes his struggles with “Les Vingts,” a group of Belgian painters.  Two men he has some issues with, Octave Mause and Edmond Picard, are shown as ruthless cooks serving up Ensor’s head on a platter à la John the Baptist.


First off, let me just observe that whichever one has his head on a plate has a fantastic mustache.  It goes so well with his aloof demeanor.  I do wonder at the tools he carries with him, however…


It looks like some kind of freaky multi-knife holster, which makes some sense for a chef.  But what is that dangling off of it?  It looks like a mobile phone charm of a donkey or something, which would be only slightly less out of place if this were not painted in the 19th century.

In the back, we see some diners who I can only assume are art critics.


I am not sure how Teddy Roosevelt got an invite to a Belgian art critic dinner, but whatever.  Some of the diners are obviously not impressed, as they vomit spectacularly over the table.


On the staircase behind the diners, an Asian man slinks up the stairs carrying a flaming…stick?  Match?  Cigarette?  In any case, someone is dumping a kettle of coffee on his head from behind a door, because Social Commentary.


In other news, there is a bird-lady laying an egg while she hangs by the neck.  It doesn’t look like you’d get much meat off her, being so much foot and feather, so I’m not sure why she’s strung up when she’s clearly still economically viable as an egg-producer.


Finally there is this adorable monacled dwarf pig-man, and his lobster sidekick with a fantastic schnoz.

22 comments:

  1. Teddy Roosevelt got off lightly compared with Winston Churchill in the last one. Maybe the bird-lady is experiencing some kind of erotic asphyxiation which is causing her egg to get laid.

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    1. I've heard of erotic asphyxiation in the process of getting laid, but this takes it to a whole new level.

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  2. Damn me if you haven't done it again, Sarcastic Ninji! I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that in my humble opinion I've seen more worthy artwork produced by slapping a sheet of paper folded with an insect trapped inside. Is this gentleman famous because he was/still is Begium's ONLY painter?

    The awkward composition is complimented only by the gentleman's absolute unfamiliarity with the rules of perspective, sanity and indeed physics itself. The execution of the piece is astoundingly primitive and naive with the exceptions possibly of the faces and the egg-lady. The work overall fills me with an emotion akin to that usually entertained upon finding that the dog has vomited over the Bang & Olufsen while the CD door was open and the unit plugged in.

    If this gentleman lived with his mother then I can think of only one possible reason why she might not have drowned the sad little runt in the blocked bowl of whatever passed for a flush toilet in 19th century Belgium - she must have been barking, flapping, foot-hoppingly insane herself.

    With the caveat that I am no art critic and know only that I likes what I likes, I can't be bothered to expend the energy to loathe it and would award it a three or four out of eleven or twelve, if only for the inclusion of the Sir Patrick Moore dog-pig with the monocle (I like monocles).

    ;-) Ruddy well done Sir, ruddy well done!

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    1. Thank you kindly. So you're an Ensor fan, then?

      Monocles do make everything just a bit better. If I ever get a dog-pig I will be sure to have one fitted!

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  3. Dang, Belgium, if this is your best (or any painter you would claim as your own) no wonder the French mock you!

    Despite my taunt, I must admit I'm drawn in; much like with a train wreck, I can't look away.

    What is up with the other head on the platter that appears to have a hand growing out of its ear? And what about the dead fish next to the wall mounted human heads?

    Ensor, just because you dreamed all of this, doesn't mean you had to paint it.

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    1. I couldn't tell whether it was a hand growing out of his head, or if his other orcish ear just grew in sideways. And it seems that "Tete a la tail du poisson" is the dish of the day there.

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  4. Maybe it's my pervy mind, but on first glance that did not look like like an egg dangling between the woman/chicken's legs!

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    1. Oh, so maybe it's more voluntary than it would seem...which doesn't really make it any less weird. I think "Masturbating chicken-woman" would make it up there in the list of bizarre fetishes.

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  5. Those crazy Belgiums. What will they think of next?

    P.S. The cook with the blue bow tie looks like Pete Townsend.

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    1. I think it's something in the waffles.

      And maybe Pete had to do some time waiting tables, back in the day...way, way back.

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  6. That is perhaps the most disturbing picture you've ever shown us ... and that's saying something! But I kind of want to get a rubber chicken now and put a doll's head on it.

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    1. That could be a hit toy! If Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles could be a hit, why not Middle-Aged Mutant Chicken Matrons?

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  7. HA! I thought Teddy Roosevelt as soon as I saw that guy in the background. Confession time: I actually really like this one (racism aside). It's not surprising that I would be drawn to the petty, vindictive work of Ensor. Nothing like someone with talent using that talent to express their hatred of rivals. One lingering question: what's growing out of the head of the other head on the platter sitting on the table?

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    1. I think it's either a mutant sideways orc ear, or an extra hand.

      And I kind of like this one too, as an example of bitter, sarcastic hate-art. I'm going to keep this response in mind next time I am slighted by someone.

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  8. Seeing work like this convinces me that I will never be a famous artist. I think I'm okay with that.

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  9. IF you ask me, the adorable monacled dwarf pig-man is a particular highlight of this image x

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    1. He is cute! The curly tail is a nice balance to the stern monocle glare.

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  10. Any painting that depicts people vomiting is a good one. At least that's what I say around my art loving friends to sound smart.

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    1. Vomiting and defecation make any work deep and full of symbolism, of course.

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  11. hello, i have a French exhibition poster of 'the dangerous cooks'(1986) if anyone's interested!!!

    if you don't like James Ensor's work then check out the Surrealist Paul Delvaux (also Belgian).

    plenty of stuff out there...x

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  12. Ronnie Daelemans and all the members of the Abex-team, working on the database of Artbooksexplorer, under construction, have downloaded this interesting and well cared for article. They thank and salute the authors, editors, and collaborators of Sarcastic Ninja who realised this site. They salute at the same time all Art-lovers around the world.

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