Born in Brussels, Pierre Alechinsky (b. 1927) studied art at the École nationale supérieure d’architecture et des arts décoratifs in his home city, focusing on illustration, printing and photography.
In 1949, age 22, Alechinsky encountered an exhibition showcasing the work of the CoBrA group which had sprung up the previous year. The group was named after the home cities of its co-founders, which included, from Copenhagen, Asger Jorn, from Brussels, the poet Christian Dotremont and from Amsterdam the artists Karel Appel, Constant and Corneille. Inspired by the work of Paul Klee and Joan Miró, the group prized intuitive artmaking, using bright, unmixed colours and drawing on folk tales and child-like symbols. Alechinsky was devoted to the group, organising exhibitions and handing the publication of the CoBrA group magazine.
In 1951, after a short but influential tenure, CoBrA disbanded. Alechinsky moved to Paris to study engraving, where he became interested in Japanese calligraphy. This was to be the next transformative inspiration in his career. After a 1955 trip to Japan he made a film about Japanese calligraphers. He was particularly drawn to the way the calligraphers used their entire body to make lines, bending over paper placed on the floor. He adopted this embodied practice of artmaking just as Abstract Expressionists were championing this relation to mark making in the United States. Since the 1960s, Alechinsky has worked primarily on paper, making works that reference medieval illuminations, an early influence on his work.
In 1983, he became professor of painting at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-arts in Paris. In 2007, Alechinsky’s oeuvre was celebrated with a major retrospective at the Museés royaux de beaux-arts de Belgique in Brussels. This followed a career punctuated by solo exhibitions at some of the most prestigious museums in the world, including the Centre Pompidou, the Guggenheim and the Stedelijk. Alechinsky’s work can be found in the collections of these museums and many others, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York.