ENSOR’S CREATIVE PROCESS: TECHNIQUE, CONCEPT, IMAGE

Symposium
University of Antwerp – Stadscampus, Former Cloister of the Poor Clares
Lange Sint-Annastraat 7, 2000 Antwerpen, Belgium

In recent years, research on material and technical aspects of the visual arts and cultural heritage has made significant progress. Thanks to the optimization of existing research tools and the development of new imaging techniques, such as Macro X-Ray Fluorescence scanning, the quality of the research data is richer than ever before. In 2013, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp started the Ensor Research Project bringing together an interdisciplinary team with the goal of investigating the material and technical aspects of the 38 Ensor paintings in the museum's collection. Supported by a parallel conservation treatment campaign, this project is enhancing the understanding of Ensor's creative process considerably. Other recent research developments include The Art Institute of Chicago's conservation of Ensor's extraordinary drawing "The Temptation of Saint Anthony" (1887) presented in a book, exhibition and on line scholarly catalogue.
This symposium will present a mid-term state of the ongoing project, evaluating the present state of technical and scientific findings along with current theoretical, stylistic, iconographical and historical investigations. We welcome papers on Ensor's life and work as well as discussions and research of creative processes in the work of his predecessors and contemporaries, and the presentation of new insights in Ensor's studio practice obtained by analytical and chemical imaging techniques.

Conference language: English.

Programme

08.30
Registration

09.05
Dr. Elsje Janssen, Director of Collections, Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp
Welcome

09.20
Dr. Geert van der Snickt, AXES Group, University of Antwerp, FIBL Chair on advanced imaging techniques for the arts.
Innovative chemical imaging techniques applied on easel paintings by Ensor

09.50
Dr. Herwig Todts, Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, Ensor Research Project
Ensor’s project-based creative processes

10.20
Coffee and tea

10.50
Karen Bonne, Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, Ensor Research Project, Koninklijk Instituut voor het Kunstpatrimonium/Institut Royal pour le Patrimoine Artistique, Brussels
The Ensor Research project. Detailed overview of technical and material peculiarities …

11.20
Kimberly Nichols, Associate Paper Conservator at The Art Institute of Chicago
Reconstructing The Temptation: Discovering Ensor’s Artistic Process Through Conservation

11.50
Dr. Nico Van Hout, Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp
Creativity and Methodology in Painting before 1800: the Working Procedures of Peter Paul Rubens

12.20
Lunch

14.00
Nanny Schrijvers, Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, Ensor Research Project
Mapping Masks and Other Accessories in Ensor’s Paintings

14.30
Prof. Dr. Claire Moran, Queens University Belfast
Ensor’s Linguistic Performativity

15.00
Prof. Dr. Marnin Young, Stern College for Women, Yeshiva University, New York
Ensor’s Interiors

15.30
Prof. Dr. Susan M. Canning, College of New Rochelle, New York
No Boundaries: Process, Invention and the Performative Turn in James Ensor’s Practice

16.00
Coffee and tea

16.20
Dr. Ina Dinter, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (Kupferstichkabinett)
“Un esprit ironique et un homme qui s’amusa volontiers“ – Irony as a Pictorial Strategy in James Ensor’s Love Gardens

16.50
Prof. Dr. Joan E. Greer, University of Alberta
Vincent van Gogh: concepts of artistic genius and the creative process in fin-the-siècle Europe

17.20
Panel

18.00
Prof. Dr. Manfred Sellink, Director, Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, University Ghent
Concluding Remarks

Optional day: November 21, 2015: Excursion to Antwerp and Ostend

Excursion by shuttle on Saturday, the excursion is free (shuttle, lunch and visits included) but limited to 40 participants. Only the first 40 participants that register will be admitted. Please use the registration form below.

09.00
from Antwerp to Ostend by Shuttle

10.30
Ostend: Mu.Zee. Phillip van den Bossche, director, and Barbara de Jong, conservator-restorer

welcoming words & The Ensor Research Project in Ostend

12.00
Lunch & Visit Ensorhouse Ostend

14.00
from Ostend to Kallo by Shuttle

15.30
Visit to the conservation workshop of the KMSKA

17.00
back to Antwerp by shuttle (estimated time of arrival 17.30)

The symposium is organized by the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, Dr. Elsje Janssen, Director of Collections and Dr. Herwig Todts, Curator and Ensor Research Project Coordinator in collaboration with the University of Antwerp, Dr. Geert Van der Snickt, Chair Advanced Imaging Techniques for the Arts, Faculty of Science, Dr. Susan M. Canning, Professor, College of New Rochelle, New York, and the Flemish Art Collection - Museums of Fine Arts Antwerp Bruges Ghent.