I think that one maybe unexpected carnivalesque element in Spilliaert’s art is how he is creating and envisioning these altered interior states. An example of this might be the Absinthe Drinker from 1907. (…) We can see in the eyes of the Absinthe Drinker for example these really big bulging unseeing eyes that are turned inward. It’s the sort of interior vision that is closed off from the viewer but invokes an otherworldly state. This sort of associative delirious state I think is an extension of what I am suggesting is carnivalesque.
Dr. H.R. Blakeley, who specializes in modern European art with a focus on Belgium, earned her PhD at Princeton University in the United States in 2025. Her dissertation, “The Carnivalesque and Belgian Modernism,” interweaves research on art, popular media, history, literature, and philosophy and examines how Ensor and Spilliaert's depiction of the carnivalesque raises questions about, among other things, political unrest and modern self-awareness at the beginning of the twentieth century.
This interview was recorded in December 2024, when H.R. Blakeley was still a doctoral candidate.