Pierre Alechinsky (born 19 October 1927) is a Belgian artist. He has lived and worked in France since 1951. His work is related to

tachisme __NOTOC__ Tachisme (alternative spelling: Tachism, derived from the French word ''tache'', stain) is a French style of abstract painting popular in the 1940s and 1950s. The term is said to have been first used with regards to the movement in 19 ...

abstract expressionism Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...

, and

lyrical abstraction Lyrical abstraction is either of two related but distinct trends in Post-war Modernist painting: ''European Abstraction Lyrique'' born in Paris, the French art critic Jean José Marchand being credited with coining its name in 1947, considered ...

Life

Alechinsky was born in

Schaerbeek (French language, French and History of Dutch orthography, archaic Dutch, ) or (contemporary Dutch language, Dutch, ) is one of the List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, 19 municipalities of the Brussels, Brussels-Capital Re ...

. In 1944 he attended the l'École nationale supérieure d'Architecture et des Arts décoratifs de La Cambre, Brussels where he studied illustration techniques, printing and photography. In 1945 he discovered the work of

Henri Michaux Henri Michaux (; 24 May 1899 – 19 October 1984) was a Belgian-born French poet, writer and painter. Michaux is renowned for his strange, highly original poetry and prose, and also for his art: the Paris Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim ...

Jean Dubuffet Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet (31 July 1901 – 12 May 1985) was a French painter and sculptor. His idealistic approach to aesthetics embraced so-called "low art" and eschewed traditional standards of beauty in favor of what he believed to be a ...

and developed a friendship with the art critic Jacques Putman.

Art career

In 1949 he joined

Christian Dotremont Christian Dotremont, (; 12 December 1922 – 20 August 1979), was a Belgian painter and poet who was born in Tervuren, Belgium. He was a founding member of the Revolutionary Surrealist Group (1946) and he also founded COBRA together with Danis ...

Karel Appel Christiaan Karel Appel (; 25 April 1921 – 3 May 2006) was a Dutch painter, sculptor, and poet. He started painting at the age of fourteen and studied at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam in the 1940s. He was one of the founders of the avant-gard ...

, Constant, Jan Nieuwenhuys and

Asger Jorn Asger Oluf Jorn (3 March 1914 – 1 May 1973) was a Danish painter, sculptor, ceramic artist, and author. He was a founding member of the avant-garde movement COBRA and the Situationist International. He was born in Vejrum, in the northwest c ...

to form the art group COBRA. He participated both with the COBRA exhibitions and went to Paris to study engraving at

Atelier 17 Atelier 17 was an art school and studio that was influential in the teaching and promotion of printmaking in the 20th century. Originally located in Paris, the studio relocated to New York during the years surrounding World War II. It moved back t ...

under the guidance of Stanley William Hayter in 1951. In 1954 he had his first exhibition in Paris and started to become interested in Chinese and Japanese calligraphy. In the early 1950s he was the Paris correspondent for the Japanese journal Bokubi (the Beauty of Ink) published by Morita Shiryu of the Bokujinkai group. In 1955, encouraged by

Henri Storck Henri Storck (5 September 1907 – 17 September 1999) was a Belgian writer, filmmaker and documentarist. In 1933, he directed, with Joris Ivens, ''Misère au Borinage'', a film about the miners in the Borinage area. In 1938, with Andre Thirifays ...

and

Luc de Heusch Luc de Heusch (7 May 1927 – 7 August 2012) was a Belgian filmmaker, writer, and anthropologist, professor emeritus at the Free University of Brussels. His 1967 film '' Thursday We Shall Sing Like Sunday'' was entered into the 5th Moscow Inte ...

, he left for Japan with his wife. He exhibited Night, 1952 ( Ohara Museum of Art, Kurashiki) and made a film: Japanese Calligraphy – Christian Dotremont would write the commentary with music by

André Souris André Souris (; 10 July 1899 – 12 February 1970) was a Belgian composer, conductor, musicologist, and writer associated with the surrealist movement. Biography Souris was born in Marchienne-au-Pont, Belgium, and studied at the Conservatory ...

. By 1960 he had exhibited in London,

Bern german: Berner(in)french: Bernois(e) it, bernese , neighboring_municipalities = Bremgarten bei Bern, Frauenkappelen, Ittigen, Kirchlindach, Köniz, Mühleberg, Muri bei Bern, Neuenegg, Ostermundigen, Wohlen bei Bern, Zollikofen , website ...

and at the

Venice Biennial The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

, and then in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

, New York City, Amsterdam and

Silkeborg Silkeborg () is a Danish town with a population of 49,747 (1 January 2022).Walasse Ting and continued to be close to

. He also developed links with

André Breton André Robert Breton (; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') o ...

. His international career continued throughout the seventies and by 1983 he became Professor of painting at the

École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts The Beaux-Arts de Paris is a French ''grande école'' whose primary mission is to provide high-level arts education and training. This is classical and historical School of Fine Arts in France. The art school, which is part of the Paris Science ...

, Paris. For the season 2018/2019 at the

Vienna State Opera The Vienna State Opera (, ) is an opera house and opera company based in Vienna, Austria. The 1,709-seat Renaissance Revival venue was the first major building on the Vienna Ring Road. It was built from 1861 to 1869 following plans by August S ...

Pierre Alechinsky designed the large-scale picture (176 sqm) ''Loin d'ici'' as part of the exhibition series ''Safety Curtain'', conceived by

museum in progress museum in progress is a private art association based in Vienna. The non-profit art initiative was created in 1990 by Kathrin Messner and Josef Ortner († 2009) with the aim to develop new presentation forms for contemporary art. The projects ...

."Safety Curtain 2018/2019"

, Vienna.

Awards

In 1994 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Free University of Brussels, and in 1995 one of his designs was used on a Belgian stamp.

Collections

His works are held in the collections of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, the

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

Museum Ludwig Museum Ludwig, located in Cologne, Germany, houses a collection of modern art. It includes works from Pop Art, Abstract and Surrealism, and has one of the largest Picasso collections in Europe. It holds many works by Andy Warhol and Roy ...

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

, the New York

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, the

Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in the United States and, to ...

in Minneapolis, the

Art Museum of Southeast Texas The Art Museum of Southeast Texas (AMSET) is an art museum in Beaumont, Texas, United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States ...

in Beaumont, Texas, the

Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale The NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale is an art museum in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Originating in 1958 as the ''Fort Lauderdale Art Center'', the museum is now located in an modernist building designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes. The current buildin ...

, Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.http://www.moafl.org The main-belt asteroid 14832 Alechinsky was named in his honour in October 2000.

References

* Mueller-Yao, Marguerite: ''Der Einfluss der Kunst der chinesischen Kalligraphie auf die westliche informelle Malerei'', Diss Bonn, Koeln Koenig 1985, (pbk) http://www.expo-alechinsky.be/EN/Tentoonstelling.aspx

External links

*
Galerie Lelong, Paris
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Alechinsky, Pierre 1927 births Living people People from Schaerbeek Belgian Jews Belgian people of Russian-Jewish descent Jewish painters Art Informel and Tachisme painters Members of the Royal Academy of Belgium Belgian artists Modern artists Belgian painters Abstract painters Belgian watercolourists School of Paris École des Beaux-Arts faculty Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur Atelier 17 alumni Belgian emigrants to France