Grusom kunst

Utfra omtalen i the New York Times må man si at utstillingen på MoMA i NY med arbeider av den belgiske modernisten James Ensor frister. Ikke minst med omtaler som dette som antyder at han var en forgjenger til den moderne popkulturen (men heldigvis uten den plagsomme politiske korrektheten som korrumperer mye av dagens kunstneriske uttrykk):

«He knew all the right art-world people but hated most of them and was sure they hated him. He was an aggrieved traditionalist with a pop-culture itch, equally entertained by Rubens and tabloid cartoons. (...) Although Ensor has long been a fixture in the art canon, he is also a fugitive presence. My guess is that a lot of people know his name without knowing quite who he is. Who can blame them? He’s hard to pin down. Gothic fantasist, political satirist, religious visionary: one minute he’s doing biblical scenes, the next the equivalent of biker tattoos, in a style that veers between crude and dainty. Just consider his self-portraits. Within the span of five years in the late 1880s he depicted himself as a cross-dressed dandy, a rotting corpse, a bug, a fish, Albrecht Durer and a crucified Jesus.»