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Pierre Alechinsky

"No doubt, artists remain the last ones to produce cerebro-manual iconographs."

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Notes of biography

Pierre Alechinsky was born in Brussels in 1927. In the immediate post-war period, he studied typography and illustration at the National School of Architecture and Decorative Arts of Cambre (Brussels).
In 1945, Alechinsky discovered the work of Michaux, Dubuffet, surrealists and became friend with the art critic Jacques Putman. His first personal exhibition is organized in 1947. He met Dotremont in 1949 and adhered to the movement Cobra this same year (Asger Jorn, Karel Appel); he was one of the most active members until the Cobra’s dissolution in 1951. Alechinsky participated in the first International Exhibition of Cobra at the Stedjelijk Museum in Amsterdam. In 1954 he met the Chinese painter Wallace Ting who played an important role in the development of its work.
In the 50’s the artist stayed in The Far East, then in The United States; he was interested in the Japanese calligraphy and in the Action Painting. Both will influence durably his work. Alechinsky painted, on the ground, the interlacing of curves, figures and non figures, which are mostly encircled with a frame painted by small compartments filled with narrative or rhythmic motives, drawn in the Indian ink. Alechinsky created suites, often very colored, in his painting and also in his graphic work. This last one began in the excitement of the Atelier 17 with Stanley William Hayter who will drive him and will always keep a place of choice in the expression of the artist. Alechinsky creates a lot of etchings and lithographs. Fond of books, he illustrates poems and texts (Cioran, Butor, Yves Bonnefoy, André Frénaud, Tardieu etc…) and he publishes numerous books.
In 1983, Alechinsky becomes a painting teacher in Paris at the Ecole Supérieure des Beaux Arts de Paris. Since The 80’s , the artist goes on his graphic art on a big variety of supports. In the same time, he begins being a lot of in demand by Public boards (Palais Bourbon, Hall du Ministère des Finances etc…). Exhibition and International retrospectives celebrate him, all over the world museums and galleries welcome his work. Pierre Alechinsky manages at once his work pictorial and literally (poetry, reports around his work). He lives and works in Bougival.

Artists on display

The art and the artists display: proclamations, galleries, museums, personal or collective exhibitions. On walls or in shop windows, wise or rebels, posters warn, argue, show. Some were specially conceived by an artist for such or such event, other, colder, have only the letter.

Some were created in lithographic technic, most are simple offset reproductions. They are many those who like collecting these rectangles of paper, monochrome or in games of colours, in matt paper or brilliant, with many words or almost dumb.

We are happy also to be able to greet, by this pages, mythical galleries as those of Denise René, Louis Carré, Claude Bernard, Berheim Jeune, Maeght, Pierre Loeb and others.

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Complete work(s)

Complete work(s)
All the complete works

Bibliographic track and more

To read about the artist :
  • « Alechinsky, peintures et écrits », Yves Rivière, 1977
  • « Entre les lignes », Yves Rivière, 1996
  • « Deux pinceaux dans la salle » (avec A. Gironella), Actes Sud, 1996
  • « Pierre Alechinsky, rétrospective », Galerie nationale du Jeu de paume, 1998
  • « Les impressions d'Alechinsky », collectif, BNF Ed., 2005
  • «  Alechinsky de A à Y », Michel Draguet, Ed. Gallimard, Paris, 2007
  • « Alechinsky : Les ateliers du Midi », D. Abadie, H. Cixous, Ed. Gallimard, 2010
  • «  Alechinsky : A contre-vent », Hélène Cixous, Ed. Galerie Lelong, Paris, 2012
  • « Pierre Alechinsky », Pierre Daix, Ed. Ides et Calendes, Neuchâtel, 2015
  • « Pierre Alechinsky : Les palimpsestes », collectif, Silvana Ed., 2017
To read from the artist :
  • « Remarques marginales », Gallimard, 1997
  • « Roue libre », Ed. Gallimard, Paris, 2017
Website :
www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/alechinsky

More :


Art movements

+ ATELIER 17 / 1927-1965 / Anton Prinner, Mauricio Lasansky, Jacques Lipchitz, Mark Rothko, etc.
+ COBRA / 1948-1952 / Christian Dotremont, etc.
All art movements

See & discover

Beyond works currently in stock, it seemed to me useful to combine business with pleasure by letting you discover others works by artists in my gallery. These artworks, now sold or removed from our website, have been in our stock in the past.

These pages will undoubtedly make it possible for some of you to associate an image with its title or the other way round, for others it will be a good time to discover more on such and such artist. For the sake of confidentiality – the pieces being no longer available – we won't display neither their numbering or their price. For whatever reason, make sure to visit this amazing art database with to date 6441 online works just for your pleasure! Michelle Champetier

See & discover