Spar – Huisje uit Neurenberg – Racket 1929

James Ensor made this drawing with crayons, sometime in the early part of the 20th century, and what hits me first is the sheer looseness of it. It’s like he’s sketching out a dream, letting the colours bleed and the lines dance. Check out the dress in the centre; it’s made of houses! Scribbled, sure, but each one has a roof, a little suggestion of home. The colours are muted, like faded memories: reds, greens, blues barely there. It’s all on the surface, nothing hidden. You can see every stroke, every decision he made, or didn't make, right there on the paper. I think of Redon when I see Ensor. Both of them weren’t trying to capture reality as it is. But instead, they wanted to find something else in the process of art making itself. It reminds me to embrace ambiguity, to enjoy the conversation that art has with itself across time.