Pierre Alechinsky at 90

On 19 October, one of the biggest names in European art turns 90, and we therefore place a focus on the still active Pierre Alechinsky. We do so with a rich selection of twelve works that cover a time period between 1966 and 2012. Leading the pack are three significant works from the artist’s diverse oeuvre, whereof the most expensive "Dans La Nuit des Temps" was made in 2012. The other work "Halloween" was made in the Chinese-American artist colleague Walasse Ting’s studio in New York in 1968. It was exhibited the same year at the Lefebre Gallery on Manhattan and acquired by the current owner’s family.

The Contradictions of the Unreasonable Painter

The work "Son P'tit Bonhomme de Chemin" from 1997 was exhibited in Vienna at the Bawag Foundation. The author of the exhibition's catalogue, Marc Sheps, attempted at the time to clarify why Alechinsky's works are often very hard to define and describe:

“Alechinsky does not choose between different means of expression, he mixes them, combines them and, disregarding established norms, reinvents them. All the words we know are both true and false at the same time: calligraphy, ideogram, handwriting, sign, symbol, trace, image. We must acquiesce: Alechinsky is an unreasonable painter inasmuch as he reasons differently. He has broken free from all of the boxes to which we have confined him and enjoys a hard-won freedom. He has become unclassifiable, having eradicated categories. His dualistic work lives off the energy of the contradictions of which it is composed (…)”.

CoBrA as a Starting Point

Alechinsky began his artistic career as a young member of the CoBrA group. Asger Jorn, Christian Dotremont and Karel Appel, founded CoBrA in 1948, but already the following year the Belgian Alechinsky, who was only 22 at the time, joined the group and ended up playing an important role in the community. Alechinsky has later stated the following about his meeting with these more experienced artists:

"These three years are an exception for Constant, they are already unexceptional for the great Jorn, they are catalysing for Appel and Corneille, they are exhausting for Dotremont, they are fundamental for me."

There is no doubt that the time spent with CoBrA was a seminal experience for Alechinsky, but his own idiom was only completed after the group's break-up, as we can see with this auction’s selection of his work.

Auction: Tuesday, 26 September at 4 pm at Bredgade 33 in Copenhagen

Preview: 14-18 September at the same address

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