The Ordure of Anarchy Scatological Signs of Self and Society in the Art of James Ensor Susan M. Canning ‘ evidenced by the controversy surrounding Andres Serranc’s 1987 photograph Piss Christ, scatological ‘imagery, especially when combined with the sacred ‘emblems of religion, can still provoke and offend. Even though Serrans’s juxtaposition of crucifix and urine referred tothe artist's personal examination of his «i firmed the belief amo intended as a critique of the commercialization of reli 1. this immersion of the sacred in the profane only com some fund jt groups that the ‘contemporary artistic avant de was corrupt and obscen One hundred years before Serrano, the Belgian artist James Ensor also utilized seatologieal imagery to defy the jf systems of his contemporaries. Only mildly cloaked in the earthy satirical tradition fie. 4 dimes Ene The see 187, etching, SY Anche. Cabinet es Estampes iblloheaue Royale russes to Ensor's private revolt against the values and mores of Belgian society and to hi In one of his earlie The Pisser (fig. 1), Es striped pants, dark coat, and top hat of the bourgeoisie, alliance with anarchist ideology. talogieal works, the 1887 or portrays @ man dressed in the relieving himself in front of a stone wall. Although the man's identity is hidden by his tured back, he is undoubtedly the nt upturned rnustache, 2 artist, as indieated by the promi ture found in- numerous self-portraits that ng this time. Although reminiscent of subject (The Pisser, distinguishing Ensor made Jacques Callot’s drawing of the Florence, Uffizi), on by Amedée Lynen for the title page of Théodore Hannon's book Aw pays de Manneken-Pis, published in na Ensor’s immediate source isan illus- Brussels in 1883, where a man urinates against a wall while a (fig. 2). Ce Ensor’s etching with both Callot's drawing and Lyneris print ‘woman looks on from a window above nparison of | ‘Thotore HANNOR AU PAYS. Manneken-Pis wr KISTEMAECKERS, de, = 116, 2 Amedeo Lyn page ilesaton fr Takodoe Hannon Au pays ‘de idanolon Ps 1683, photogavure, 8 inches Bbltheque Royle, Gases a‘ic. 3 samesErsce ton, Poufamatus, Caco, and Pansmout Celebrated ‘ean Physicians Examining the tots of King Dats ate the Bale of ‘ibe, 12, cing, 37 Pi cher. Cabal ee Eatamper,Bbotheque Royale russes underlines the difference of Ensor's approach, Whereas Cal: Jo’s man is a jester and Lynen’s isa worker, ‘obviously middle-class. By exchanging the jester's costume ‘or the worker's clothes for the trappings of the bourgeoisie Ensor implies that, in its naturalness, elimination acts as @ social leveler. Aer all, even the iddle-classes have 1 go! Moreover, despite his clothing, Ensor’s pisser oceupies a position in his class as the patches on his coat jacket indicate. Indeed, his act of urination against a wall covered with graffiti suggests that the man—Ensor— ‘On the wall above the pissing man the artist has written wsor est un fai” (Ensor isa fool) Below this inscription he has drawn two scratchy, childish images of figures, one smoking, the other holding a pipe. On the ground to the right is a pile of turds. Using these elements as markers, Ensor creates a circular arrangement that connects urna ation with infantilism, foolish behavior, and the natural discharge of the artis. | drawings allude tothe artist's contempt art and for the crities who Ts fact for the publie who ignored h or drawing, skills these naively rendered figures could represent the critics, whose authority ridiculed his p is both pissed upon and deflated by the stick figures of chile’s play. Altho intended to affront those whose com= iments so offended him, Ensor’s act of urination also stakes ‘out the territory of his artistic activity Like Lynen’s print, Ensor’s The Pisser, with its allusion tothe M put ou ” story who pisses on his © the seatological cken-Pis, the street urchin who used his urine to 4 fire that threatened Brussels, and to Ty Eulen- ish herw of Charles de Coster’s epic the artist links this image to 4, the roguish F y of his Belgian heritage. In addition, by associating urination with foolish behavior, Ensor also aligns himself with the legend of the natural fool often found ition of folly, as vd Titerature, In this te ted by Erastnus and illustrated by Bruegel, the abnor- mal or socially unacceptable behavior ofthe fol functions as both a social critique and a statement of the commonality of the human condition, Through these conventions of satire and folly, The Pisser states the personal and public role that Ensor that of the fool whose ived for himself as an artis. marginal activity could be socially beneficial to al The Pisser is also one of several works that Ensor executed in which the vulgar and raunchy hold sway. In fact, this type of imagery abounds in Ensor’s art, particularly between 1886 and 1890, « period when the artist elarifies his of his best-known and most socially critical work. While Ensor peculiar expressive vision, producing in the process som includes references to defecation or vomiting in his paintings, drawings, and prints to underscore their satirical izing, purpose, this paper will concentrate only on those artworks in which seatological imagery is the direct referent. One of the earliest images in which Ensor highlights scatological subject matter is his 1886 print Iston, Pouf: rated Persian Physi- famatus, Cracosie, and Transmoul], Ce ‘cians, Examining the Stools of King Darius after the Battle of Arbela (fig. 3). In this scene, which hi literary source, Darius's doctors exami 1 historical oF e the contents of several chamber pats in order to explain the Persian king’s to Alexander the Great at the Battle of Arb gamela) in 331 n.c. Tn iment of the scene, King, D chamber pot Toss a (or Cari ated tothe right background where he sits ona anxiously awaiting the doctors’ analysis while straining to prochice new specimens for their examination. exaggerated expressions, and informal arrangement of the four doctors are all reminiscent cof Rembrandt's pri nsor’s use of a erosshatched techniqh ricality and drama, Rembrandt's influence on Ensor is most c and chiaroscuro to enhance the scene's theat-io. 4 dames Enso Dilation of Seat Anthony. 187, on canvas 46h x 66 inches. Museum of Modem At, Now Yor, Purchase, cevident in his etchings, which the Belgian artist hegan making in 1886, the year he exe ed this print. Like Rem= brandt, Ensor combines the lofty with the base. The physi cians go about their divin ns with great pomp and circum= stance, but the object of their attention is nasty and foul smelling and their manner of interpreting historieal events is far from sciemific Quite evident in Ensor’s print isthe diminished stature of the king, whose bowel movement rules the day. While poking was trained atthe Brussel at the convention of history painting in which he Academy, message to his cont nporary audience. The four physicians are arranged in a circle with an opening for the viewer and they hold the pot so that the observer, too, can look in and give an opinion. With its sly allusion to the shorteor conquest and power, this print may very well be reference to the Belgian Kin Leopold's recent forays int empi uilding in the Congo and a warning about the conse- quences of imperialism, E nt with divining the meaning of excrement. In other works, he preferred te spread it around. Several commentators have noted the fecal quality of some of Ensor’s canvases, resull of the artis’ loose gestural stroke and his preference for bloody and bilious colors. As Marshall Myers has pointed out, the entire surface of Tribulations of Saint Anthony, 1887 (fig. 4), now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, resembles piles of manure.2 himself a hook-nosed, pockmarked srrounded by lump of decaying flesh, sits on a heap of dung, defecation, decay, and decadence. To the right, two devils add their contribution to the pile, while on the far right a large-eared man holds syringe ready to administer an enema, Included in the garbage and debris to the left are several naked, fleshy women, whose presence, Meyers has shown, embodies not only the polluted environment that surrounds the saintly hermit but also Ensor’s views of women “On Women” as later described in his poem entitle Miry pool crawling with bad beasts Liquid manure, sticky and oosing with vermin Sneaky and hostile morass Horrible cesspool teeming with leeches:® To this compilation of sexual references, oozing orifices, and hof hell ke from Saint Anthony, fires constame mounds of shit, Ensor adds the almost palpable ste hapless souls dropped there by grotesque demons flying The disgusting, even repellent, yet viscerally tactile50 ‘16.8 lames Ensoy, The Sad and the Broken: Satan and is Farts Legions Termentng the Crucified Chit 1686, charcoal ad ont crajon on paper, 23M % 23Ne Indes Mustes oyau des Beaun-Ats, Busses surface of Tribulations of Sains Anthony creates an aggressive ‘and confrontational mode. It almost as ifthe artist intends ne in the face of the observer. Once to rub this pated ‘again, as in The Pisser, Ensor combines the puerile with the scatological, ion fraught with psychoanalytieal lerpreted from a Freudian perspective, the fecal the treatment of the surface overtones references in the subject gain symbolic meaning, becoming beth play and weapon. As ‘well, the association that Ensor makes between female sexu: ality and defecation in this painting and the poem “On vd would pat it—the trans: ial." Wormer’ illustrates—as Fi ference of the anal into the se 0. 6 ses Eos, The Ey of Chis into Brass in 1889, While a sign of Ensor’s repressed sexuality, Tribulla tions of Saint Anthony also states the artist's belief that the material sn society had led tothe decline of 1 values of Bel spirituality and the loss of individualism. ‘This point of view as already visualized in his 1886 drawing The Sad and the Broken: Satan and His Fantastic Legions Tormenting the Crucified Christ fig. 5). Again we see a world of pestilence sand death, populated by skeletons and demons who rise from the © th to torment Christ. Referring once again to Ren brandt, this time to bis print The Three Crosses stiggests that Christ's crucifixion led not to salvation but by vile demons who cavoet in Christ's head, and defecate on the return of evil, as personifi the right foreground, clave is open wound as he hangs helplessly onthe cross. Although nsor does not yet give Christ his own features, itis obvious by the artist already identifies withthe public torture and ridicule of ianner in which he represents this scene that the this religious figure: As I have written elsewhere, through his identification with Christ, Ensor represented his alienation from his con- temporary milieu and from the Belgian avant-garde group Les Vingt (Les XX) of which he was a founding met This disaffection increased in 1888, when none of his works ‘was hung at Les XX until two weeks after the opening of the ‘group's annual salon. Corning at the same time thatthe group championed Georges Seurat’s Neo-Impressionist manifesto, Sunday Afternoon on the Isle of La Grande Jatte (1886, Chicago, The Art Institute} this “rejection” by his col leagues provoked Ensor to begin his monumental Entry ofChrist into Brussels in 1889 (ig-6). In this painting, Ensor as Christ triumphantly enters Brussels in the midst of a Mardi Gras celebration, while on a balcony in the background revelers vomit and defecate on a banner bearing the Vingtist emblem. With this painting, Ensor allied himself withthe tradi- Northern art. After 1888 he employed exaggeration, distortion, and caricature as well as seatological references to comme ion of moral satire found ‘upon a society whieh he ‘saw as conformist, conservative, and hypocritical. As these images grew more politcal, Ensor’s individualist ideology ‘assumed a more anarchistic tone, Like many of his contemporaries, Ensor never publiely proclaimed his political views, but he associated with anar- cists from the beginning of his career. Ensor first learned of the theories of Elisée Reclus, the geographer and anarcho- ‘communist, in the late 1870s when he came to Brussels 10 study at the Academy.° Later, in 1886, Ensor read excerpts of Prince Kropotkin’s Words of a Revolutionary in the Brussels avant-garde journal Art moderne, While these contacts edu cated Ensor on the fundamentals of anarcho-comt ist the ory, at Les XX he leamed the strategies of anarchist action, Les XX had declared themselves an anarchist group when they formed! in 1884, and throughout their ten salons they utilized a variety of tactics, including hanging red fags coutside ng the cover of their eatalogue in red to represent their activities to the Belgian public as radical and revolutionary. Like the anarcho-communisttheo- tists, Les XX did not outline a 4 Visualize their political beliefs, Instead, the group pro- claimed the freedom of individual expression while actively promoting the social role of ar. Although in agreement with the socialist goals far elass ‘equality and the collective ownership ofthe means of produc tion, anarcho-communist theory rejected the socialist model ‘of collectivity. Instead, they called for small associations of individuals to farm into harmonious federations. In anarchist theory, the free individual became an agent for social ‘change. The anarchist sought an ideal order which would result in a natural world founded upon the harmon the individual and society, a “life without masters” as Reclus termed it, where a social accord would arise “from the free fie way for artists to between association of individuals and groups, conforming to the needs and interests of each andl all? In the anarchists view, until this ideal order was created, each individual must continue to struggle against all forms of political, economic, and personal auth ganda by the deed Ensor’s individual hy means of diteet action oF “propia n and personal revolt ag thority is frst visualized via his idiosyneratic style and later ‘through his identification with Christ. By the late eighties the artist's anarchistic anti-authoritarianism and his eriticism of contemporary Belgian society is embodied in seatological imagery. Designed to affront both his colleagues at Les XX ic. 7 umes Enso este dessus, peste dessus peste prtout Plague blow, plugue above, lage all woundh 186, cleedpenel 8% 12 inches oni seu vor Schone Kusten, Antwerp. and the middle-class public who attended the group's salons, these works ean be seen as Ensor’s anarchist bombs, his “propaganda by the deed” intended to disrupt and undermine the status quo. In Peste dessous, peste dessus, peste partout (Plague below, plague above, plague all around) of 1888 (fig. 7 Ensor satiizes middle-class decorum. Based upon a photo- trraph taken on a group outing to Bruges, Ensor porteays his sister Mitche and his friends Willy Finch and Mariette and Emest Rousseau seated on a bench by the sea. Their enjoy- ‘ment of the sun and fresh sea ar is interrupted by the billious fumes that emanate from the bodies and feet of the fishermen on the left and the ragged mother and child on the righ Adding to these noxious odors are puddles of urine and pile of feces on the ground beneath the bench, The properly dlisposed representatives of the middle class appear obli ious, however, to the polluted atmosphere that surrounds them, as well as tothe poverty and wretched conditions of the ss fortunate whose presence so clouds their pursuit of lei As Alain Corbin his pointed out in his study of the social significance of odor, in the nineteenth century smell dilerentated status and living space. While the secretions «f the poor were often associated with excrement, the absence cfedor presupposed the wealth and education of the middle class. As Corbin shows, the movement toward deodorzaton and sanitation in which Belgium played a leading role during this period) was also a repressive « npaign designed to control behavior and perpetuate intolerance.® Yet even as the bourgeoisie sought olfactory limi classes, the lower classes asserted the benefits oftheir fetid position. jons on contacts between only was excrement a valuable commodity that the poor gathered and sold for profit, but also, as evidenced by the Shrovetide practice of throwing waste and excrement and farting audibly, the masses used odor to declare their revolt against the repression of middle-class propriety. Given these associations with odor, the legend “Plague below, a2 10 8 lames Enso The Ste, 186, colored panel, 1294 X27 Inches Koninklk Muraum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp plague above, plague all around,” written at the top of this draw each group takes on an ironie double meaning, wi viewing the other as pestilence.” In The Strike, or Massacre of the Fishermen of Ostend (fig. 8), also of 1888, Ensor tums his attention to contempo- rary events. This large composite drawing refers to the Au. gust 1887 strike called by Ostend fishermen to protest the use of their fishing areas by the British. In the course of the townspeople, who defecate or vomit fish on the invaders. Whereas the men and women of Ostend are given heroic poses, the police are shoven as brutal agents of state authority ‘who surround and overwhelm the small group of protesters, slaughtering all who stand in theie way: ‘Once again, Enso illustrates the victorious and liber ating, qualities of waste matter. Whether as an aspect em ployed to rd dle class a i Peste dessous . . . of as a means of exacting revenge on oppressive state authority as in The Strike, the seatological acts as an equalizing element, raising or lowering all to the same level. At the same time, Ensor associates the vulgar aspects of defecation, elimination, and vomit with an inst tual, unrefined state, a way of living, which in the artist's view appears more in tune with the natural order of things than the artificial leisure of the bourgeoisie or the violent actions of a repressive state, Like the anarchists whose beliefs he shared, Ensor sought in these works to replace the values of the old social order with representations of a new, more elemental society based on natural law and on a har- mony among classes, e the pretensions of the In addition to commenting upon social difference and oppression, Ensor also uses scatologieal references to ert cine the conformity of Belgian society. In Destroying Angel (fig 9), print of 1889, Here the miter and flowing beard positon the angel as a cipher of Catholic pateiarchal authority. Below this eques- trian figure a erowd of people raise their hands in appeal while simultaneously baring their bottoms to defecate en wsse. In this manner Ensor viscerally describes the aequ scence and fear tha in his view resulted from the chuee insor takes on the Catholie church. authoritarian approach to spirituality, a demand for compl ance that led to the loss of individualism so essential to Ensor’s artistic, spiritual, and political vision Alimentation doctrinaire (Doctrinal feeding) of 1889 (Vig. 10) is even more explicit in its assessment of social, political, and religious deceit. As indieated by the title 1c. 9 hames Ent, The Destroying Angel 1089, elehing 45x 6 inches (Cinet de Eatampen bbatneqe Royle, Buses./1e. 10 les Enoe Alimentation docinare Doctrinal ein 189, ttching, 7» 98 mbes Cabinet des stapes, Bibthage Royale, Srasels written at the op right, this etching, like The Strike, refers to specific social issues facing Belgium in 1889. On the edge of bowl, the artist has brought together representatives of the political status quo: the Liberal party, the Gatholie party, and the king, Leopold II. Three figures hold cards which allude to prominent topies ofthe period. On the left, a general has @ sign that reads “Service personnel” (personal service), @ reference tothe practice of wealthy families paying the lower classes to serve military terms, Both the Liberal andl Catho parties supported this privilege, as extending the draft would have resulted for the Liberal in a loss of support among the propertied class, which alone could vote, while forthe Catho~ lies, paid substitution was a way of subsidizing the poor. Next to the general Ensor has drawn a bourgeois gentleman who grasps a card labeled “Suffrage universel” (universal suf frage). Extension of the franchise was a key platform of the Belgian Workers Party (Parti Ouvrier Belge, or P.O.B.). The Catholic party generally opposed estending the vote on the grounds that it would strengthen the socialists and ‘undermine church authority. For the conservative Liberals, universal suffrage was tantamount to anarchism as it would give economic control and therefore political power to the lower classes. On the right, Ensor has placed the representa- tives ofthe Catholic church, a bishop versity rector. The rector holds a sign reading “Instruction obligatoire” (compulsory education), an allusion o the struggle between the Catholic and Liberal partes for control over the Funding and orientation of public education. In the center of this sroup, Ensor has drawn Leopold Il, who, as the head of sovernment, leads these representatives of the ruling class in defecating on the eager crowd that has assembled els. Ensor addresses the beholder in an da military, and religious leaders of the Belgian st Ling the scene with a plaque and subtitling it with cards to underscore his point. He also inverts the scatological referent. Rather than a sign of the natural power of the disenfranchised lower class, excrement becomes a symbol of the foul-smelling, anal processes ofthe ruling order. Here, as the Flemish say, “zijschijten in een pot” (they all shit in the same pot. Alimentation doctrinaire is Ensor’s most overt political statement and his most direct use of seatological imagery. By the mid-1890s, when his art began tosell and he gained some critical and public acceptance, B imagery declined. While he continued to make seatological references in later works, they are not as confrontational as the images discussed here. Just as the anas the 1890s to a more construe or's use of atological ve andl Tess deste for social change, $0 100 does Ensor’s criticism of society sow more general and less abusive. Yet even with the artist's mellowing, the ordure of anarchy that acts as a sign foe his sexually repressed, alienated, and foolish self and for his personal revolt against social and political repress mains fresh even today. - 1 See a Soret on Fad a UE, Osa, Meum ie Sane Kuta Pac 84, Barly Nannon es Bea mello rhein op ha sani ac ried yD Laake in Jomer Ens The Crtne lars (Disrca, N: Pre Univer Fre 1 29. 35 2 Moral Nees aes Ea The Titi Sait Athy Poe ‘hen the Harel Vise,” Art Magne Sh 4 Dacre 1979 8 Inbncachsion, Myers cnt pct subject ‘Sin hi tao, gpg the rset ey heme ‘te puting wight be alloy nal ded i, Thee pm lt Pl Harts Jones En (New Yk Alam, 159, 6, ise i oa mater sping. in ES, maken tthe litied ves belong oo ‘eerste base rs repent we etal stats ppt a cry el wr 5. Sinn Caning “Werner en enrich ie Ene, Len Ving ‘de tek," in anes Ba exh et (Ante Kai Manco Schne te, 13 31-50, East snl i xan en UX droning Cay (186 Begin, rv cellent fe nl ie Ving Tage the bc fe fhe regain Ener teed ating oi atta he ee rt vith Relais wings the is erp with Erwt sear Ramen me et mr rural ort athe Rasa er, Helwan te to rly ere lesen purl sci ais qe ivi. ‘eTawocii hed individ de open cet wk Sess trates do sac de t's Ete Rn, Crp ‘end 89 1905, Wl Recs Pa: Aled Cnt 1 {Asin Citi, The Fol andthe Frog rand he Fr Sia mainalin (Cori: Mans Harvard Unity Peon 1908), 139-0 9 Aig pest mn enmely rated plg,"o peae"in thi ewig cs wile all ating Inspr anu, pee en ‘ech er annoying ninth see of pst tes Tas Paco eal ail bh war of conta a he Minenaton nie wed ia SUSAN M. CANNING is an associate professor in the Department of Act at the College of New Rochelle, New York She is currently researching a book on James Enso. 3Copyright of Art Journal is the property of College Art Association and its content may net be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express uiritten permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.