Pierre Alechinsky - “Deals with modern stimulants”

Pierre Alechinsky (1927)
Technique: Etching
Title: “Traite des excitants moderns”
Year: 1989
Edition: 47 / 125
Signature: Hand signed.
Image size: 51.5 cm x 44.5 cm.

Condition: In very good condition, never framed. Beautiful work by this highly esteemed artist, is one of the etchings from a series of 7. See the description from the reference work Travaux d'impression by Gert Jan Hemmink from 1992 (Book is not part of this lot).
COA of studio Epicentrum Art Gallery included.
Background work: Treatise on modern stimulants, text by Balzac, afterword by Michel Butor, suite of 7 color etchings printed outside the text on the presses of Piero Crommelynck, Paris. These works are again occupied by the fear of catastrophe, of great upheavals, in the continuity of the theme 'star and disaster'. The star, as it evolves, becomes a circle of fire, a black tree, the mouth of a volcano and then a mushroom.
Pierre Alechinsky (1927)
Pierre Alechinsky (Brussels, October 19, 1927) is a Belgian painter and graphic artist.
To live
Alechinsky studied applied graphic arts, (book) illustration, typography and photography from 1944 to 1948 at the École nationale supérieure des arts visuels (ENSAV), formerly the École nationale supérieure d'Architecture et des Arts décoratifs (ENSAAD - la Cambre) (Ter Kameren) in Brussels. In 1945 he discovered the work of Henri Michaux and Jean Dubuffet and developed a friendship with the art critic Jacques Putman, who dedicated several works to Alechinsky. In 1947 he started his painting career and joined De Jonge Belgische Schilderkunst and also had his first solo exhibition in Brussels.

On 8 November 1948, the artists' group Cobra was founded in Paris. Alechinsky discovered this group during a visit to the international exhibition of experimental art 'La fin et les moyens', in March 1949 in Brussels and immediately became a member of the group. Together with Christian Dotremont, Alechinsky was the driving force behind the Belgian section of Cobra. Together with the sculptors Olivier Strebelle and Reinhoud, he was also the organiser of the community centre 'Les ateliers du Marais', which was a meeting place for many Cobra artists. He took part in both Cobra exhibitions, in 1949 and 1951. In 1950, he received the Prize of the "Jeune Peinture Belge".

The last one, held in Liège, was even organised by Alechinsky. However, he was so busy during this period with the organisation of all sorts of Cobra events and with the editing of the magazine of the Cobra movement that he produced very little himself. His production only really got going after the break-up of Cobra.

In 1951 Alechinsky left for Paris to study engraving and printing techniques with Stanley William Hayter at 'Atelier 17'. From 1951 his work leaned towards expressionism, where it had previously been influenced mainly by surrealism. In Paris he became acquainted with artists such as Alberto Giacometti, Bram van Velde and Asger Jorn. In 1954 he had his first exhibition in Paris, at the Nina Dausset gallery. During the first half of the fifties his work became increasingly free and one can see abstract beginnings in the lines.

In 1954, Alechinsky came into contact with Chinese painting through the Chinese painter Walasse Ting, who would strongly influence his work. In addition to the Chinese influence, Japanese art had an important influence. He also began to show an interest in oriental calligraphy. This is evident from the documentary film 'Calligraphie japonaise' that he shot in Kyoto in 1955. He began to paint on large sheets of paper that lay on the floor. Since 1952, he maintained a correspondence with the Japanese calligrapher Shiryu Morita. In this way, Alechinsky tried to build a bridge between Eastern and Western art.

His international fame grew steadily. Alechinsky had his first major exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels in 1955. He also had exhibitions in London (1958), in the Kunsthalle of Bern (1959), at the Venice Biennale in 1960 in the Belgian pavilion, in Pittsburgh and in the Stedelijk Museum of Amsterdam in 1961, in New York and in Silkeborg, Denmark (1963). From the sixties until today, many exhibitions have been devoted to Alechinsky's work all over the world. In 2000, the PMMK in Ostend honored him with a retrospective. In 1999 and 2002, Micky and Pierre Alechinsky were guests of honour in the then gallery space and in the building "Rossaert" of art dealer Ronny Van de Velde in Antwerp. The painter-photographer Guy Donkers portrayed the painters Pierre Alechinsky and Walasse Ting together in 1999. From the end of 2007 to the spring of 2008, the KMSKB in Brussels devoted a retrospective to the work of Pierre Alechinsky, who was soon to be honoured for his eightieth birthday and his achievements as a multidisciplinary artist.

In 1963 he moved his studio to Bougival, near Paris, where André Breton came to visit him. In 1965 he took part in the last major surrealist exhibition L'Ecart Absolu in Paris at the Galerie de l'Oeil. In 1969 he organised a retrospective exhibition in Brussels. In it he convincingly demonstrated that, although his work retains a fundamental affinity with that of Jorn, Alechinsky nevertheless managed to acquire a personal language and style in the post-Cobra period. In 1977 Alechinsky was awarded the Andrew W. Mellon Prize for his contribution to modern art. In 1983 he became professor of painting at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris.

In 1994 he received an honorary doctorate from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Impressions of Alechinsky's works were issued in 1995 and 2012 as a subject on Belgian stamps. The French post also issued stamps with an image of his work in 1985 and then in 1992. The French stamps are like fine works of art in themselves, printed in a refined printing technique (tactile lines of the etching technique).

On the occasion of his eightieth birthday in 2007, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels paid tribute to him with a retrospective exhibition of his 60-year career.

Alechinsky is also active as a writer. His texts were collected in De andere hand, translated by Hugo Claus and Freddy De Vree.

Work
Alechinsky combined several techniques in his work. For example, he combined watercolor and sketches. His work became more dynamic in the second half of the 1950s. He also applied his paint increasingly thickly on the canvas. His canvases were covered with masses of paint in green, blue, white and gray tones. In this way, his work achieved greater freedom in the late 1950s (both in form and color) and mythical creatures also appear in his works.
In 1955 Alechinsky stayed in Japan and studied calligraphy there. He even made a film about it. What struck him most was their posture while working. Since then he laid paper or a canvas on the floor and worked bent over the work. As a result, his arm and hand were completely loose and free in their movements. Another characteristic of his work is the goose board composition. In it, the figures crowd into the curves of the winding line. They spread out over the entire surface or, as in his latest works, surround a central drawing. Finally, the Ensor palette is typical. These are the thin layer of paint, his transparent and fresh colours. Geirlandt also wrote: "This commentary has emphasized the playful nature of the work. Yet it would be an injustice to Alechinsky to limit his oeuvre to this. The dramatic and the comic intertwine in the grotesque art of today, which is a mirror image of today's man, 'a sinnliches Paradox, the shape of an unnatural form, the face of a visually lost world'."[2][1]

In 1965 he switched from oil to acrylic painting, in combination with paper that he later marouflages on canvas. With his first acrylic painting, Central Park, he also took part in the last exhibition of the surrealists. From that moment on he also introduced the 'drawn frames' typical of him: series of drawings that are placed around the central work as if it were a comic strip with the core, the subject, in the middle, as the front page. In some works this frame even became more important than the title page. A number of his works no longer even have a title page: they are collages of dozens of drawings.

Also remarkable is - from the late 80s - the introduction of manhole covers in his work. Armed with paper he went out into the street and made a 'copy' of the cover (like we as children would copy a coin on paper with a pencil), around which he played and improvised.