Jesus in a Crowd (after Ensor)
Date1991
Maker
Jeffry Mitchell
American, born 1958
Label TextOriginally from Seattle, artist Jeffry Mitchell adopts humor and craft techniques to playfully probe at deeper truths. Here, Mitchell tackles issues of artistic and devotional lineage with the wry irony of a prankster, reimagining James Ensor’s late 19th-century painting Christ’s Entry into Brussels. In Mitchell’s interpretation, the chaotic crowds welcoming Christ are replaced by a sea of plaster clowns—alternately smiling, grimacing, or seemingly melting like pools of whipped cream—while Jesus himself appears as an oversized puppet-like knit doll. The carnivalesque scene is poignant, revulsive, and comical—a simultaneously ridiculous and sincere view of humanity.
Object number92.136
Photo CreditPhoto: Scott Leen
Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Contemporary Art: Made in Seattle - A Northwest Summer, May 4, 2006 - July 23, 2006.
Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Poke in the Eye: Art of the West Coast Counterculture, June 21 - September 2, 2024.Credit LineGift of the artist
Dimensions8 x 12 x 7 ft.
Each panel: 84 x 36 x 12 in.
MediumPlaster, plywood, and papier mache with watercolor, acrylic, and latex paint
Persian
18th century
Object number: 42.12.2
Gary Hill
2014
Object number: 2020.15.15
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