The winner of the first Andrew W. Mellon Prize for Painting (1977) and the French Grand Prix National for painting in 1984, Alechinsky has been recognized in recent years as one of the most significant living artists. (The art market has also noticed his stature: one of his paintings sold at auction several years ago for over $2,000,000.)
Alechinsky was just barely out of his teens when he burst onto the art scene as one of the original members of the COBRA group, and over the years he has emerged as one of the most imaginative and witty artists of our times. Alechinsky fans are everywhere. John Russell, who in 1986-87 devoted three separate columns in The New York Times to Alechinsky, sees him as "a man of strange blameless passions. Decorated invoices, worthless stock certificates, obsolete air-force navigational charts and ancient hand-written archival materials spark his imagination. . . . He has a taste for nature’s upheavals." Carlos Fuentes, the Mexican novelist for whom "the garden is the center of the world," has described Alechinsky as a man who "paints gardens. . . . He knows that the history of gardens is the history of all of us. . . . Alechinsky . . . chooses any of the forked paths of the manicured gardens at Blois or Hampton Court and then transforms them, ferociously, into the savage gardens of the primitive mind, the original unity of dream and awareness, reason and imagination, desire and reality." Indeed, it may be that it is his dream of recovering that lost unity that makes him, as The Times called him, "a poet of entanglement, [who] resolutely turns the emphasis away from himself, preferring to act rather as historian and referee than as autobiographer. . . . His touch is light, his thought rapid, his view of the world as sharp as it is benign. There is no better companion, and not many who keep us so consistently amused and are so generous with their findings."
Alechinsky has had major retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art and The Guggenheim Museum in NY, The Museum of Arts, Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh (in 1977, the Year of the Snake), The Palais des Beaux-Arts and the Musées Royeaux des beaux Arts in Brussels, the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Vile de Paris and the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Boymans-von-Beuningen in Rotterdam, the Louisiana Museum in Humlebaek, and museums in Aalborg, Brême, Copenhagen, Darmstadt, Des Moines, Düsseldorf, Gordes, Hanover, Marseille, Metz, Mexico City, Munich, St. Paul de Vence, Toronto, and Zurich. Spaightwood Galleries has over 175 images by ALechinsky in inventory; in due time, we will post as many as we can on our web site; if you are looking for a particular images, however, please contact is to determine whether we have an impression available.
Bibliography:
General works: Pierre Alechinsky,. Cent vingt dessins, donation de l'artiste Brussels: Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels 1973; Pierre Alechinsky, Dotremont et Cobra-foret. Paris: Galilée, 1988; Pierre Alechinsky, Drawings and Prints. Jerusalem: Musee d'Israel,1970; Pierre Alechinsky, Hoirie Cobra. Caen: L'Échoppe, 1990; Pierre Alechinsky, Ideotraces. Paris: Editions Denoel, 1966; Pierre Alechinsky, Le bureau de titre. Paris: Fata Morgana, 1983; Pierre Alechinsky, Le test du titre: 6 planches et 61 titreurs d'elite. Paris: Yves Riviere editeur, 1974; Pierre Alechinsky, Margin and Center. NY: Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 1987; Pierre Alechinsky, New Work: Pains de terre émaillé, Floa Danica drawings, Revalorisations. NY: Andre Emmerich Gallery, 1991; Pierre Alechinsky, Notes sur Orsay. Caen: L'Échoppe, 1989; Pierre Alechinsky, Paintings and Writings. Pittsburgh: Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, 1977; Pierre Alechinsky, Reponses a un questionnaire. Caen: L'Echoppe, 1987; Pierre Alechinsky, The Future of Property. Fourteen Specimens re-evaluated by Pierre Alechinsky. NY: Lefebre Gallery, 1970; Pierre Alechinsky and Georges Duby. Alechinsky. Zurich: Maeght Zurich, 1980; Pierre Alechinsky, and Amos Kenan. Les Tireurs de Langue. Paris: Yves Riviere editeur, 1974; Pierre Alechinsky, and Karel Appel. Two-brush paintings. Their Poems by Hugo Claus. Foreward by Christian Dotrement. Paris: Yves Riviere editeur, 1980; Appel, Karel & Pierre Alechinsky, Encres a deux pinceaux. Paris: Yves Riviere editeur, 1978; Alain Bosquet, Alechinsky. Paris: Le musee de poche 1971; Jacques Busse, Pierre Alechinsky. Chicago: Arts Club Of Chicago, 1965; Pierre Descargues, Alechinsky Bouches et Grilles Paris: Galerie Maeght Lelong 1986; Christian Dotrement et al. Appel et Alechinsky: Encres à deux pinceaux, peintures, etc. Saint Paul De Vence: Fondation Maeght, 1982; Georges Duby, Alechinsky Zurich Maeght Zurich 1980; Jacques Dupin, Alechinsky: Laves Emaillees. Paris: Galerie Lelong, 1988; Petit journal: Made in France 1947-1997. Paris: Centre Pompidous, 1997; Jacques Putnam,. Alechinsky. Paris: Celiv, 1990; Michel Sicard, Alechinsky Sur Rhone. Paris: Galerie Lelong, 1990; Michel Sicard, ed. Pierre Alechinsky: Extraits pour traits. Paris: Galilée, 1989; Giorgio Soavi, Alechinsky: XXXVI Biennale de Venise, Pavillon Belge. Venice: Venice Biennale, 1972.
Prints: Pierre Alechinsky,. Alechinsky a l'imprimerie: 150 estampes. Paris: le Musee national d'art moderne, 1975, 1977; Pierre Alechinsky, Alechinsky. Rome: Edizioni 2RC, 1988; Pierre Alechinsky, Aux petits soins. Paris: Atelier Clot, 1989; Pierre Alechinsky, Ces robes qui m'evoquaient Venise. Montpellier: Fata Morgana, 1988; Pierre Alechinsky, L'avenir de la propriéte. Montpellier: Fata Morgana, 1992; Pierre Alechinsky, Communication: 16 Manifestations d'Hypertrophie Calligraphique. Vouvière (Belgique): Editions du Daily-Bul, 1967; Pierre Alechinsky, and Michel Butor. Le Chien Roi. Paris: Daniel Lelong Editeur 1984; Michel Butor et Michel Sicard, Pierre Alechinsky: Frontières et Bordures. Paris: Galilée, 1984; Michel Butor et Michel Sicard, Alechinsky: Travaux d'Impression. Paris: Editions Galilée, 1992.Yves Riviere, Pierre Alechinsky: Les estampes de 1946 a 1972. Paris: Yves Riviere editeur, 1973.
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