The Deadly Sins of James Ensor

Owing to his dismissal of convention, use of the aesthetic of ugliness, simplified colour scheme and the provocative nature of his themes, the Belgian painter James Ensor (1860–1949) became a direct forerunner of Expressionism and modern art in general. Ensor’s inclination to planar abstraction of forms was aptly interpreted through the print medium that represented the black-and-white antipole to his painting oeuvre. In a set of etchings, published in 1904, he grasped the classical subject of the Seven Deadly Sins, though with an originality of his own that rejected the traditional ways of visual represention of this theme.

Curator: Petr Šámal
Trade Fair Palace, 4th floor