ART & ARTISTS

Tuesday, 17 April 2012

Pierre Alechinsky - part 1

This part 1 of a 4-part post on the works of Belgian artist Pierre Alechinsky (born 1927). His work is related to Tachisme, Abstract Expressionism, and Lyrical Abstraction. Alechinsky has lived and worked in France since 1951.

Pierre Alechinsky was born in 1927 in Brussels. From an early age he was interested in graphic arts and in 1944 he entered the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture et des Arts Décoratifs in Brussels, where he studied book illustration and typography. He also painted in a post-Cubist style and later in a manner reminiscent of Ensor. His paintings of monstrous women were shown in his first one-man exhibition at the Galerie Lou Cosyn in Brussels in 1947. That same year he became a member of the group Jeune Peinture Belge.

In 1948 expressionist artists including Appel, Jorn, Constant, Carl-Henning Pedersen and Corneille formed the CoBrA group. Alechinsky joined CoBrA in 1949 and participated in the first Internationale tentoonstelling experimentele kunst-CoBrA that year at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. He became a central figure in the group and organised its second international exhibition in Liège, Belgium, in 1951. Shortly thereafter CoBrA disbanded.

Alechinsky moved to Paris in 1951 to study printmaking under a grant from the French government. He studied engraving with Hayter at the Atelier 17 in 1952. At about the same time he became fascinated by the Japanese calligraphy and in 1955 he went to Tokyo and Kyoto. There he visited masters of the art and produced the award winning film Calligraphie japonaise. In the 1960s Alechinsky travelled extensively in Europe, the United States and Mexico and participated in numerous international exhibitions. An Alechinsky retrospective organized by The Arts Club of Chicago toured the United States in 1965. In 1976 he became the first recipient of the prestigious Andrew W. Mellon Prize for artists. The prize was accompanied by a major retrospective of his work in all media at the Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, in 1977. The artist continues to paint and to make prints and book illustrations at his home in Bourgival, France.

Parts 1-3 will show a broad spectrum of Alechinsky’s work in chronological order. Part 4 looks at some print editions.

1950-53 Le Feu
oil on canvas 97 x 130 cm
© 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1951 L´Hiver
oil on canvas 100 x 150 cm
© 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1955 Central Park
ink on paper 44 x 65 cm
© 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1955 Montagne regardant
oil on canvas 97 x 146 cm
© 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1958 Tu te calmes?
ink on paper 151 x 215 cm
© 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1960 Négatif
ink on paper mounted on canvas 154 x 158 cm
© 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1960 Positif
ink on paper 150 x 154 cm
© 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1960 Prenez La Porte
oil on canvas 50 x 65.3 cm
© 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1960 Soutien de famille
oil on canvas 200 x 200 cm
© 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1961 Alice grandit
oil on canvas 205 x 245 cm
© 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1961 La Parole aux enfants
oil on canvas 97 x 130 cm
© 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1962 De nouvelles dispositions
oil on canvas
© 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1963 Autrement dit
watercolour on paper
© 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1963 Referendum
ink on paper 50 x 60 in
© 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1964 Avec Lewis Carroll
oil on canvas 198 x 198 cm
© 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1964 Les Intempéries du langage
oil on canvas 200 x 200 cm
© 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1965 Central Park
acrylic on paper 162 x 193 cm
© 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1965 Central Park
ink on paper 23 x 30.5 cm
© 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1965 Central Park
ink on paper 49 x 61 cm
© 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1966 La Cantatrice
acrylic on canvas 100 x 154 cm
© 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1966-67 La Jeune Fille et la Mort
acrylic on paper 137 x 137 cm
© 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1966-68 A vue d´oeil d´oiseau
oil on canvas 200 x 274 cm
© 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1967 Gong
acrylic on paper 118 x 151 cm
© 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1968 Parmi les derniéres
oil on canvas 162 x 130 cm
© 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1968 Tribord
lithograph 49 x 66 cm
© 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

c1968 Untitled
ink and watercolour on paper 26.1 x 39.4 cm
© 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

1969 Astre Désastre
acrylic on paper 155 x 155 cm
© 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Sunday, 15 April 2012

Washington Square Park, New York

When I was 22 years old I lived in New York for a short while – I arrived knowing nobody and with nowhere to stay. On the flight over I found myself sitting next to a lady that happened to be the Art Director of a New York magazine I knew and admired – we shared a cab to Greenwich Village where she dropped me off at the Washington Square Hotel, famed haunt of artists and writers. I spent my first evening, a very humid and hot Autumn evening, listening to the various musicians just hanging out in Washington Square Park. This was my introduction to New York, and Greenwich Village remains to this day my favourite part of the city.

In the course of researching this blog, I’ve noticed that a lot of American artists, particularly those associated with New York City, like the Ashcan School, have at one time or another undertaken paintings and drawings of Washington Square Park, so I thought I’d do a short post that subject.

A recent photograph © Poul Webb

Washington Square Park is one of the best-known of New York City’s 1,900 public parks. At 9.75 acres it is a landmark in the Manhattan neighbourhood of Greenwich Village, as well as a meeting place and centre for cultural activity. In 1826 the City bought the land, the square was laid out and levelled, and it was turned into the Washington Military Parade Ground. Military parade grounds were public spaces specified by the City where volunteer militia companies responsible for the nation's defence would train.

The streets surrounding the square became one of the city's most desirable residential areas in the 1830s. The protected row of Greek Revival style houses on the north side of the park remain from that time. In 1849 and 1850 the parade ground was reworked into the first park on the site. More paths were added and a new fence was built around it. In 1871, it came under the control of the newly-formed New York City Department of Parks, and it was re-designed again, with curving rather than straight secondary paths.

In 1889, to celebrate the centennial of George Washington’s inauguration as President of the United States, a large plaster and wood Memorial Arch was erected over Fifth Avenue just north of the park. The temporary plaster and wood arch was so popular that in 1892 a permanent marble arch, designed by the New York architect Stanford White, was erected, standing 23 metres high. The inscription on the arch reads: “Let us raise a standard to which the wise and the honest can repair. The event is in the hand of God.” Washington. White modelled the arch after the 1806 Arc de Triomphe in Paris. In 1918 two statues of George Washington were added to the north side. The first fountain was completed in 1852. The fountain was replaced in 1872. The monument to Giuseppe Garibaldi was unveiled in 1888.