James Ensor
Subtitle: the Temptation of Saint Anthony
By: Susan M. Canning, Patrick Florizoone, Nancy Ireson, Kimberly J. Nichols ; With a preface by Herwig Todts
Contributors: Art Institute of Chicago; J. Paul Getty Museum
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: The Art Institute of Chicago
Published: 2014
Place of publication: Chicago, Illinois
Language: eng
Number of pages: 168
ISBN-13: 9780300203912
Subjects: Exhibitions; Criticism and interpretation; Art; Symbolism in art; ART / Individual Artists / Monographs; ART / Subjects & Themes / Religious; ART / History / Modern (late 19th Century to 1945); ART / Collections, Catalogs, Exhibitions / General
Description: This engaging volume describes the creation and restoration of the extraordinary large-scale drawing 'The Temptation of Saint Anthony' - a work by late 19th-century Belgian artist James Ensor (1860-1949) that is composed of fifty-one sheets of paper collaged into a hallucinatory social critique and artist's manifesto. Each sheet of the nearly six-foot-high work is reproduced at actual size, revealing Ensor's remarkable technique and fertile imagination. Here, Saint Anthony is surrounded not with nature - as customary - but with the moral decay of society. Replete with tiny scenes depicting both sexual temptation and spiritual piety, Ensor splices potent imagery from travelogues, popular science and technology magazines into a Symbolist masterpiece. Susan M. Canning and Kimberly J. Nichols recount the fascinating tale that led to the work's restoration and first public showing in more than sixty years.
Notes: "James Ensor: The Temptation of Saint Anthony is published in conjunction with an exhibition titled Temptation: The Demons of James Ensor, organized by and presented at the Art Institute of Chicago from November 23, 2014, to January 25, 2015"--Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: Revelation, Resistance, and Resilience : (Re)presenting James Ensor's The Temptation of Saint Anthony / Susan M. Canning; title: The Trials of The Temptation : The Genesis of James Ensor's Saint Anthony / Nancy Ireson and Patrick Florizoone; title: Transcending Tradition : James Ensor's Innovative Drawing Process in The Temptation of Saint Anthony / Kimberly J. Nichols.