Pierre Alechinsky

Pierre Alechinsky, founding member of CoBrA in 1949, was an exemplary advocate of the unexpected. As a predecessor to the Tachisme and European Abstract Expressionist movements, CoBrA embraced the freedom in color and form, spontaneity, and experimentation embodied in childhood doodles. Fascinated by the printing process, Alechinsky traveled to Paris to study engraving, then to Japan to study calligraphy in the 1950s. He started using India ink as a medium in 1957, and began integrating personal legal documents or invoices into his images shortly thereafter. Working quickly on paper, Alechinsky often blended subjects and narratives with ease, embracing accidents and working regularly in series. His lyrical abstraction, a combination of Oriental mark-making and iconography reminiscent of Paul Klee, can be found in book illustrations, prints of many variations, films, drawings, sculptures, and paintings.

Alechinsky has exhibited at a number of institutions throughout his expansive career, including the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, National Museum of Art, Paris, National Gallery of Jeu de Paume, Paris, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark, Centre Pompidou, Paris, and Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels. In 1972 he represented Belgium with Christian Dotremont in the 36th Venice Biennale. Alechinsky also received an Andrew W. Mellon Prize for Painting in 1972 and the French Grand Prix National for Painting in 1984. One of his designs was used for a Belgian stamp in 1995.