Masquerade, Make-up and Ensor

James Ensor's very own vision of humanity was one ahead of its time, unique and satiric, but always realistic. For honouring and celebrating his life during this Ensor Year, there couldn't be a better idea than having as a party venue the whole city and as main attractions the four most important museums: the Royal Museum of Fine Arts KMSKA, the Fotomuseam FOMU, the Fashion Museum MOMU, and the Museum Plantin-Moretus. Across the four venues, multiple artworks from the artist and from others inspired by his legacy were organised in multiple narratives that, as a whole, tell us about life and art during and after him. 

The KMSKA holds the biggest and most diverse collection of Ensor's artworks in the world and under the name In Your Wildest Dreams. Ensor Beyond Impressionism, we can dive completely in his universe, with the help of not only his pieces and some others who served him as inspiration from geniuses like Claude Monet, Edvard Munch, or Rembrandt, but also thanks to the enthralling design of each room that houses the exhibition. Turning the chronological journey of Ensor’s life into an experience where we could get to feel or see life as he once did, the curators had the brilliant idea to make of this an immersive experience through the use of technology, with a couple of interesting ideas that make us feel a part of the artwork. We won't tell you exactly what so you can see it for yourself.

At FOMU the first ever retrospective of American photographer Cindy Sherman in Belgium is finally open, highlighting the life and work of a woman as chameleonic, ironic, and critical as one of the characters from Ensor's paintings. Her riveting social commentary through the series of at times jarring, at times funny, and at times simply genius self portraits reflects an accurate depiction of our time, where identity is one of the concepts more difficult to process and to be at peace with. Meanwhile, the Museum Plantin-Moretus highlights the remarkable graphic and print work of Ensor, where by exploring and experimenting with different techniques he managed to leave some very interesting pieces that are just an extension of his talent and hard work on a different medium. 

Now at MoMu, a place very familiar to us and a must-do stop whenever we are in the city, they took the lessons and the concepts left by the honouree and did the hard job of taking it into the fashion territory. Hard, not exactly in a theoretical sense; his expressiveness and creative ideals very much align with what the core of what fashion stands for, but hard in a physical way. When realising masks and make-up were the perfect bridge to link both worlds, the challenge of portraying such a real but at the same time intangible craft was a big task, but as always, they did it and they did it beautifully. Celebrating the painters of fashion and putting their name upfront, a position not often given to them but totally deserved, the art, craft, and mind of those who, without them, not a single look could work as well as they do on the runway or on a pictorial was highlighted. 

With the goal of finding the answer to three major questions that turn out to be some of the biggest worries of our century: Why do we wear masks? How do we deal with ideals of beauty that are always changing? Why are we so afraid of visible ageing? The exhibition confronted them from various angles, from a beauty and aesthetic lens to the more culturally linked and societal aspects of the industry. It is often thought that when someone wears make-up, they are putting on a disguise that hides what truly lies behind it, similar to what was said about wearing masks during Ensor’s time. To this, Ensor’s answer, as a great mask enthusiast, was the opposite: wearing masks signifies the liberation to be who we really are without any fear of prejudice, to unveil one's true nature, and to let the deepest feelings come to life.

Make-up and beauty have grown to be one of the most influential and powerful industries in the world, and the exhibition portrays its reach from a business point of view, like the high Rihanna has reached with Fenty or the incredible amount of new products and procedures created to soothe the necessities modern times have created on us, but also from an artistic perspective. Inge Grognard's work, make-up artist and close friend and collaborator of the Antwerp Six and Martin Margiela, has been one of the most admired and challenging MUAs in the industry, and a selection and reimagination of her iconic creations was made by Martin himself, explaining what was behind each look and showcasing also the tools used to achieve them, giving importance to not only the painter but also to its brushes. 

Several more works of Grognard are featured, as well as pieces from designers and collaborations with make-up artists who have relied strongly on the magic of masks and make-up to elevate their narratives, like Walter Van Beirendonck’s very own masks in the form of a bouquet of heads, Julien d’Ys creations for Comme des Garçons explained thoroughly on his sketchbooks, Pat McGrath's work alongside John Galliano—including the show stopping glass skin moment from the last Margiela couture collection—or Thomas de Kluyver ideas for Simone Rocha, like the now iconic red bows under the eyes that look like tears. 

On an experience where the bright side of makeup—the colours, the inventiveness, the power it has to tell the stories with the face as a perfect canvas to express all sorts of meanings—is paired seemingly with the more worrying consequences the twisting of its meaning has had on our society—the obsession with an inexistent beauty standard, the pointless search for eternal youth, or the way technology can make us stop recognising ourselves. Masquerade, Make-up and Ensor continues a conversation the Belgian painter started and that now, thanks to Antwerp’s homage to his craft, we can all be part of and learn something from.