RESTORED ‘SAINT ANTHONY’
IS READY FOR THE SPOTLIGHT
James Ensor, the late-19th-century Belgian painter who helped shape Modernism, was an interpreter of a vast array of sources, from traditional masters like Bosch and Breughel to Courbet and Manet. Working in an attic studio in a resort town on the North Sea, he created myriad paintings over his 70-year career, including still lifes, interiors and portraits; tabloid cartoons; death masks; and biblical subjects. And by the end of the 1880s, his work became more satirical, fantastical and grotesque. Among his most prized works are the large-scale drawings made from pasted-together sheets of paper. One in particular, “The Temptation of Saint Anthony,” dating from the 1880s, is almost six feet tall and composed of 51 separate sheets of paper mounted on canvas.
Starting this spring, it will be on view first at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, from June 10 through Sept. 7, and later at the Art Institute of Chicago, from Nov. 23 through Jan. 25, 2015. It will be its first public showing in more than 60 years.
In 2006, the Art Institute quietly acquired the drawing from the artist’s patrons, the Speth family, with the help of the C. G. Boerner Gallery, which runs spaces in New York and Düsseldorf, Germany, and was aware of the Art Institute’s strength in 19th-century works on paper.
Depicting Anthony surrounded by a strange mix of modern, real-world temptations including a fast-food vendor and a hot-air balloon, along with imaginary beings like devils, the work shows him kneeling in prayer, while above his head are rays of the rising sun and a sorrowful Jesus wearing a military helmet. “It is Ensor’s most important drawing,” said Nancy Ireson, associate curator of prints and drawings at the Art Institute. “It is his biggest, and it’s unique in its format and the sheer number of different themes contained within one giant work.”
By the time it entered the Art Institute, the delicate drawing was in need of conservation and restoration, which became an eight-year project. The separate sheets had been attached to the canvas, but over the decades, the supports did not stay in place. They therefore had to be removed and remounted onto Japanese paper, which conservators felt was the best way to preserve the work. The drawing had been restored in the 1940s with paper that had darkened over time, and those areas were removed to reveal the original drawing beneath.
When “The Temptation of St. Anthony” goes on view in Chicago, it will be the centerpiece of a larger exhibition, “Temptation: The Demons of James Ensor.” “We’re trying to explain some of the stranger aspects of St. Anthony and explore the meaning of this monumental drawing,” said Ms. Ireson, who has gathered more than 100 works from institutions and private collections, including the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp. “While we’re used to seeing artists celebrating the advances that modernity brings, Ensor captures the fear and anxiety of a world in flux in a sardonic yet fantastical way,” she said.
The Chicago exhibition will be different from the one at the Getty, which is being called “The Scandalous Art of James Ensor,” and will focus on “Christ’s Entry into Brussels in 1889,” a very large painting (more than 8 feet by 14 feet) from the Getty’s own collection that is too fragile to travel, as well as the Art Institute’s “Temptation of Saint Anthony.”
JUST LIKE LADY LIBERTY
It was only a matter of time before New York City’s parks got a sampling of Danh Vo’s “We the People,” a project that consists of about 250 sculptures fashioned from hammered copper. Each is a copy, in the actual size, of parts of the Statue of Liberty’s outer skin.
Some of these fragments have been on view before in New York. Now, from May 17 through Dec. 5, the nonprofit Public Art Fund is bringing the largest number outdoors, to City Hall Park and Brooklyn Bridge Park’s recently opened Pier 3. “We felt as though it was the perfect thing because of its proximity to the source of inspiration,” said Andrea Hickey, the Public Art Fund’s associate curator, who organized the exhibitions. “The Statue of Liberty evokes so many meanings to so many people around the world.”
Born in Vietnam and raised in Denmark, Mr. Vo, a Conceptual artist has been on a roll in recent years. In 2012, he won the Hugo Boss Prize, which, besides money, includes a solo show at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. His work was also at the 2013 Venice Biennale.
For City Hall Park, the Public Art Fund culled sculptures from private collections and the artist’s holdings. The exhibition will be made up of about 40 works and includes a curl of Liberty’s hair, folds from her drapery, a ray from the crown and about 20 parts of the plinth. Also on view will be the chain at the figure’s feet, which is linked to a broken shackle, a symbol of America’s independence.
“City Hall Park is more like an outdoor gallery,” Ms. Hickey said. In Brooklyn, there will fewer works, but they will be larger and include a newly fabricated sleeve of the arm — but not the torch. “They lead your imagination to think about the torch without actually seeing it,” she added.
ARCHITECTURAL FOLLIES
Another imaginative project will occupy Madison Square Park — that swath of green space between Madison and Fifth Avenues from 23rd to 26th Streets — from May 1 through Sept. 7. Consisting of three fantastical architectural follies, it is the first public art exhibition in this country by the New York sculptor Rachel Feinstein and the largest sculptures she has ever made.
Ranging in height from eight feet to 26 feet, the three-dimensional structures are fashioned from powder-coated aluminum with applied surface illustrations.
“Rachel is an unusual 21st-century artist, because she has taken inspiration from 18th-century sources,” said Brooke Kamin Rapaport, senior curator of the Madison Square Park Conservancy, which organizes its art installations. “Think Piranesi meets public art.”
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