Alechinsky, Pierre

Born in Brussels in 1927, Pierre Alechinsky is renowned for his experiments in printmaking, painting and sculpture. Read the biography

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Biography

Born in Brussels in 1927, Pierre Alechinsky entered the Brussels School of Decorative Arts in 1944, where he learned photography, typography and illustration. He soon became involved in the Belgian art scene, befriending art critic Jacques Putman and joining CoBrA, an artists' collective based in Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam. Within this collective, he met Karel Appel and Asger Jorn. After the dissolution of CoBrA, Alechinsky moved to Paris and perfected his etching techniques at Atelier 17 before meeting Alberto Giacometti and Walasse Ting. He was inspired by oriental calligraphy and painted in ink, depicting large signs with fluid movements during the 50s, before learning acrylic painting from Walasse Ting in the 60s. The work Central Park shows the interweaving of Alechinsky's influences (oriental techniques and comic strips) and inaugurates a form of composition in which small vignettes surround the central drawing. Alechinsky, who was influenced early on by the work of Henri Michaux, continued to maintain a close relationship with books, illustrating works by Michel Butor, Yves Bonnefoy and Emil Cioran. He began teaching at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris in 1983. His work is now regularly exhibited. They testify to the diversity of techniques employed by the artist, who masters painting, engraving and even sculpture. Alechinksy is now recognized for his experimentation in these fields. Today, he continues to call for the liberation of artistic protocols, through his atypical painting style and his choice of unusual materials for engraving, such as cast-iron manhole covers.