Masquerade, Make-up & Ensor

Published in conjunction with the exhibition Masquerade, Make-up & Ensor at MoMu - Fashion Museum Antwerp, this book celebrates the craftsmanship and creativity of make-up and hair artists: the painters of fashion. Belgian artist James Ensor's ideas about masquerade, vanity, seduction, deception and the transient are explored from a contemporary perspective. Throughout history, make-up has been viewed with suspicion and compared to the wearing of a mask: a mask to hide one's true face. Ensor's work prompts a number of universal questions: . Why do we wear masks? . Why do we fear visible ageing? . How do we navigate ever-changing beauty ideals? This book investigates the profound connections between make-up and the many facets of our humanity. AUTHOR: Kaat Debo has been the director of the Mode Museum, aka MoMu (Fashion Museum) in Antwerp since 2008. She is an expert on Belgian fashion and has curated over 20 exhibitions. SELLING POINTS: . This book zooms in on Ensor's ideas around the masquerade, (false) coquetry, seduction, deception and the ephemeral . The publication accompanying the exhibition of the same name at MoMu Antwerp, from September 2024 to February 2025 . A whole new perspective on Ensor's oeuvre and his influences to this day . An ode to the painters of fashion: the craftsmanship and inexhaustible creativity of make-up and hair artists in a book where light, colour, art, fashion and make-up meet 240 colour, 40 b/w illustrations