A Red That Sings - (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A Red that Sings celebrates colorists James Ensor, Rik Wouters, and Jules Schmalzigaug, showcasing vibrant reds, blues, and yellows, turning color into a rhythmic, emotional, and symphonic visual experience.

A Red that Sings brings together three great colorists (James Ensor, Rik Wouters, and Jules Schmalzigaug) in a dazzling celebration of color. At the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp, which houses the largest collection of their works, vermilion reds, intense blues, and vivid yellows shine, revealing the vibrant visual language they created. Ensor composed "unbelievable chords of color," Wouters let bright red accents dictate the rhythm of his compositions, and Schmalzigaug reintroduced the 'singing red, ' inspired by the Baroque emotion of Rubens. The book shows how these artists transcended the soft palette of Impressionism, turning color into a symphony of rhythm, emotion, and sound. Complemented by masterpieces from contemporaries like Adolphe Monticelli, A Red that Sings invites readers to experience these modern masters as they themselves painted the world: at a pitch that sings, vibrates, and resonates.

About the Author

Adriaan Gonnissen is a historian and art historian. He works at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA) as curator of modern art, where he develops a series of exhibitions on Belgian modernism from both international and regional perspectives. In the past, he served as curator at Mu.ZEE in Ostend, where he organized exhibitions including Cinema Joostens, Jules Schmalzigaug, and Transatlantic Modernisms: Belgium-Argentina 1910-1958.