The theatrical, the satirical and the macabre come together in arresting fashion in the art of James Ensor. He was very successful in his lifetime and exerted considerable influence on the development of Expressionism. An innovator and an outsider, he rebelled against the conservative art teachings of the late 19th century academy in Brussels, drawn instead to the avant-garde salons where his radical creative vision could thrive. The imagery of masks and carnivals runs through much of his work, from vibrant colours and flamboyant costumes to an ever-present sense of drama and satire. Curated by Luc Tuymans, this exhibition will present a truly original body of work, seen through the eyes of one of today's leading painters. Tuymans will look back at Ensor's singular career through a selection of his most bizarrely brilliant and gloriously surreal creations. Exhibition: Royal Academy of Arts, London, Great Britain (29.10.2016 - 29.01.2017).

A Belgian of British origin, James Ensor (1860-1949) is without doubt one of the most complex artists of the second half of the nineteenth century. Without masters or disciples, the completely independent artist broke free from the era's artistic currents as he shifted cultural markers and tested the boundaries of visual arts. When he painted his first pieces, Impressionism reigned over Europe. In the same way as Van Gogh, Gauguin and Munch, James Ensor offers a radically novel vision without equivalent in the modern art of the late nineteenth century. Although James Ensor draws his inspiration from the Bible and historical writings, scholarly reference books and popular magazines, his own fantasies constantly feed his visual language. Unquestionably, carnival masks and skeletons have become his emblems. The concurrently enigmatic and prolific artist drew, engraved and painted still lives, portraits, landscapes, caricatures, as well as fantasy and religious scenes. A true anarchist at heart, he broached satirical, political, religious and historical themes with equal ease. Articulated like a biography, this book based on excerpts from unpublished letters offers an insight into the unusual life of an artist and his greatest masterpieces.

"The Superhuman Crew" brings together two visionary works of art--Ensor's masterpiece, "Christ's Entry intro Bussels in 1889" and Dylan's "Desolation Row"--in a surprising, thought-provoking format. 48 color illustrations.

Syd Barrett was an English composer and purveyor of some of the most intriguing music ever written. Famous before his twentieth birthday, Barrett led the charge of psychedelia onstage at London's famed UFO club. With a Fender Telecaster and a primitive Binson echo unit, Barrett liberated the guitar from being, in critic Simon Reynolds' words, 'a riff machine, and turned it into a texture and timbre generator.' His inspired celestial flights of improvisation, and his more structured and whimsical short songs indicated a mind of unusual inventiveness. Chief in Barrett's mind was a Zen-like insistence on spontaneity; each performance had to be unique, and Barrett strived to push his music farther and farther out into the zone of complete abstraction. This in-depth analysis of Pink Floyd founding member Syd Barrett's life and work is the product of years of extensive research. Lost in the Woods traces Syd's swift evolution from precocious young art student to acid-fuelled psychedelic rock star, and examines the myriad musical and literary influences that he utilised in composing his hypnotic, groundbreaking songs. A never-forgotten casualty of the excesses, innovations, and idealism of the 1960s, Syd Barrett is one of the most heavily mythologized men in rock, and Lost in the Woods offers a rare portrayal of a unique spirit in freefall.

It was never a sure thing that James Ensor, the great Belgian painter of macabre and ghoulish scenes, would become a nationally revered figure. James Ensor was unusual in many ways. Apart from his training in Brussels, he spent his entire long life in Ostend, seemingly the opposite of cosmopolitan. Later on he was expelled by the group Les XX for a particularly controversial canvas: The Entry of Christ into Brussels, which he had painted in 1889. An expressionist before the term was coined, he used the iconography of masks and skeletons to point up the essential horrors of life, and often underwrote his images with a sardonic gallows humour. It has been said that he appropriated the subject matter of a Bosch or Bruegel and revisioned them using the techniques of Manet or Rubens. But this is to diminish his own unique take on both art and experience. A genuine maverick in the way that so many Belgian artists are (lest we forget Magritte), James Ensor can claim a dark and distinctive place in the art histories of the last hundred years.