The Belgian artist Pierre Alechinsky is born on October 19, 1927 as a son of Russian-Jewish immigrants in Brussels. Pierre Alechinsky has created, up until today, a diversified and poetic oeuvre, full of imagination and cultural notions, drawing a bow between Western European and Asian culture. Pierre Alechinsky, along with Karel Appel, Constant, Asger Jorn, Corneille, Christian Dotremont, Joseph Noiret et al, belongs to the group of the "CoBrA"-artists, of which he was a member from 1949 to 1951. The work of the France based artist belongs to Tachism, a lyrical abstraction of the Informel (Informal Art).
Pierre Alechinsky studiestypographyand book illustration at the school for architecture and applied art "La Cambre" in Brussels from 1944 to 1949. He joins the artist group "Jeune Peinture Belge" in 1947 and moves to Paris with his wife Michèle "Micky" Dendal in 1951. His first one-man show is set up in Paris in 1954. In the early 1950s he shows a deep interest in Oriental and Asian calligraphy. He works for the Japanese calligraphy magazine "Bokubi". He meets the Chinese artist Walasse Ting in 1954 and intensifies his explorations into the art of Asian ink painting. He travels to Japan in 1955 to make a film in Tokyo and Kyoto ("Calligraphie japonaise") which is about the traditional art. Besides oil paintings, he also makes large-size ink drawings on Chine that he mounts on canvas as of 1956.
The artist moves to Bougival near Paris in 1963. A year later the artists works on the film "Encre" ("Ink")together with Karel Appel and Walasse Ting. He begins using acrylic colors and ink exclusively as of 1965. For the first time Alechinsky adds his "remarques marginales" to an acrylic painting, that is "Central Park" (1965), which was made during a visit to New York City. These are marginal notes and ornamental decorations in ink, which are to become a characteristic feature of his paintings, framing the central motif.
Alechinsky is professor at the Ecole nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1983 to 1987. He returns to oil colors as of 1989, creating an extensive oeuvre comprising paintings in oil, graphic works, sculptures and ceramics. Additionally, Pierre Alechinsky also works a s a scriptwriter.
Pierre Alechinsky lives and works in Bougival near Paris as well as in Labosse (Picardie).