Herwig Todts

Function: 
Conservator of Modern Art
Institution: 
Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp
Post: 
Plaatsnijdersstraat 2 - 2000 Antwerp
Telephone: 
0032 (0)3 242 04 22
Fax: 
0032 (0)3 248 08 10
E-mail: 
herwig.todts@kmska.be

Education: 

Master‘s Degrees earned:

Master in the History of Art and Archaeology, University of Ghent Master‘s Thesis:'Het portret in de 19de eeuwse Belgische schilderkunst‘

Field of Research/are of work on Ensor: 

  • Theory of Art research: Ensor and Modernism, plein aire, academia, naturalism
  • Iconographical research: Flemish movement and plastic arts, late 19th-century naturalist motifs, grotesque
  • Stylistic research: Henri De Braekeleer, James Ensor
  • Critical and aesthetic artistic problems in West-European visual arts: Kunst van Heden (L‘Art contemporain) Contemporary Art, The skin of Cambyses, Maurice Gilliams

Publications: 

  1. [Various catalog notations], in: James Ensor, exhibition cat., Paris, Musée du Petit Palais, 1990, pp. 21-26.
  2. 'Naturalisme: een inleiding tot de historiografie en interpretatie van een mode‘, in: Het volk ten voeten uit. Naturalisme in Belgium en Europa 1875-1915, exhibition cat., Antwerp, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, 1996, pp. 9-31 (appears in Dutch and French).
  3. 'The grotesque in the art of James Ensor‘, in: Between Street and Mirror: The Drawings of James Ensor, exhibition cat., New York, The Drawing Center, 2001, pp. 203-215.
  4. James Ensor. Schilderijen en tekeningen uit de verzameling van het Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen, Schoten, BAI, 2008, 143 p. (verschenen in het Nederlands, Frans en Engels).
  5. James Ensor. Schilderijen en tekeningen uit de verzameling van het Koninklijk Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, Schoten, BAI, 2008, 143 p. 5. Goya, Redon, Ensor: Groteske schilderijen en tekeningen, exhibition cat., Antwerp, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, 2009, 238 p.
  6. 'Make way for the Old Ones! Respect defunct Schools, Ensor and the Art-historical Canon‘, in: James Ensor, exhibition cat., New York, The Museum of Modern Art, 2009, pp. 118-129; 'Place aux vieux! Respectez les écoles éteintes! Ensor et le canon de l‘histoire de l‘art‘, in: James (art) Ensor, exhibition cat., Paris, Musée d‘Orsay, 2009-2010, pp. 40-47.
  7. Ensor ontmaskerd, exhibition cat., Brussels, ING Cultural centre, coproduction with the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp and the Centre for Fine Arts – BOZAR, 2010, 224 p. (appears in Dutch and French).

Projects: Exhibitions: 

  1. La dignité des humbles. Jean-François Millet et le naturalisme en Europe, Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp in collaboration with the Musée d‘Orsay (Paris) for the Bunkamura Museum of Art (Tokyo) and the Fukuoka Art Museum, 2003
  2. Goya, Redon, Ensor: Groteske schilderijen en tekeningen, Antwerp, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, 2009
  3. Ensor ontmaskerd, Brussels, coproduction between the ING Cultural Centre, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp and the Centre for Fine Arts – BOZAR, 2010- 2011

Relevant memberships/workgroups: 

  1. Ensor Advisory Committee: Xavier Tricot, Sabine Taevernier and Herwig Todts (KMSKA)

Online Publications by Herwig Todts

James Ensor, De oestereetster, 1882, KMSKA, Antwerpen.
Ensor in Japan
Jacket La Plume, 1899
Ensor, occasional modernist.