Article: Looking for James Ensor: the Belgian artist's prodigiously eclectic oeuvre, on view in an exhibition originating at MoMA and opening this month at the Musee d'Orsay, shows him to be at once an influential avant-gardist, anarchic malcontent, traditionalist and religious visionary.

ANYONE IN SEARCH OF A CLEAR STORY line should probably stay away from James Ensor. His work reveals no rational development, stylistic consistency, focused set of concerns, or even any overriding, organizing obsession (though he did have an abiding interest in light and a well-honed self-regard). If you want, however, an artist whose diverse ambitions seem strangely in tune with today's prodigiously eclectic art world, Ensor's your man. The Belgian artist (1860-1949), the subject of a full-scale exhibition of paintings, drawings and prints recently at New York's Museum of Modern Art, was part influential avant-gardist, part anarchic malcontent, part religious visionary, ...

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