Poetry and fantasy are the trademarks of Pierre Alechinsky; with his creative art, the Belgian painter combines Western and Eastern elements to create new worlds, discovering unexpected interpretations and perspectives for himself and his audience in previously hidden spaces.
(...) Continue readingPierre Alechinsky - Member of the CoBrA group; interest in Asian art
Pierre Alechinsky was born in Brussels on 19th October 1927. The son of Russian-Jewish emigrants, he began studying book illustration and typography at the Brussels School of Architecture and Applied Arts in 1944. In 1949, he joined the CoBrA artists' group, a unique, transnational avant-garde movement at the time, and made an intensive contribution to the production of the magazine CoBra. However, the group only lasted a couple of years and disbanded in 1951, shortly after which Alechinsky moved to Paris, where he studied etching extensively, as taught in Atelier 17 by the British artist Stanley William Hayter. In 1954, Pierre Alechinsky made the acquaintance of Walasse Ting. The Chinese-American artist and poet taught the fascinated Belgian about Chinese painting techniques. Alechinsky subsequently travelled to Japan in 1955 to make a film about traditional calligraphy, and at the same time, changed his style, moving from predominantly abstract forms to representational, roughly drawn figuration.
Breakthrough in Germany; large-scale art on the margins
Pierre Alechinsky had his first solo exhibition in 1961, organised by the German gallery owner Otto van de Loo in Munich, and three years later, took part in a Documenta in Kassel for the first time. Despite this initial success in Germany, Alechinsky moved back to France, where he settled in Bougival near Paris, where he still lives and works today. For a time, Pierre Alechinsky also took on a teaching position and taught as a professor in Paris from 1983 to 1987. The influence of Asian art, in particular calligraphy, runs through Pierre Alechinsky's entire oeuvre and provides him with important inspiration. His works are created on paper, onto which he applies acrylic colours and ink and only once the pictures are finished, does he put them onto canvas. Often it is not white, unused paper, but paper that has already been used, such as ordinary receipts or historical maps. A characteristic feature of Pierre Alechinsky's work are the so-called "remarques marginales", which he likes to add to his main works. These can be of considerable size and form a unit with the actual work.
Diversely inspired and celebrated well into old age
Pierre Alechinsky has received prizes and honours for his innovative work, including Japan's most important art prize, the Praemium Imperiale, which he received in 2018 at the age of over 90 for his unwaveringly powerful creation of profound emotional worlds - as announced by the jury. He had previously been made a Knight of the Legion of Honour and awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Brussels. Together with his compatriot, the painter and poet Christian Dotremont, he decorated the Belgian pavilion at the 1972 Venice Biennale and they also designed a large-format mural for the Brussels Metro in 1976. In addition to his paintings, Alechinsky has also created ceramics and sculptures and wrote several screenplays.
Pierre Alechinsky - Works that have already been sold at Kunsthaus Lempertz:
