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Lot Essay
Executed in 1989, and held in the collection of Benjamin and Gloria Engel since the following year, Pierre Alechinsky’s Entièrement peint à la main (Entirely Painted by Hand) is a mesmerizing example of the artist’s fantastical works on paper. Combining the experimental freedom of the Cobra years with an intuitive graphic sensibility derived from his study of Japanese calligraphy, the artist arranges the two in a composition of margin and centre, a device which recalls the working process of the printer and lithographer, who annotate the margins of their proofs with preparatory sketches, addenda and notes. For Alechinsky, this visual arrangement consolidates the power of the work of art: ‘Beyond the frame there is...well, all the rest! The roving hordes, the outside world, so powerful when you compare it to a small rectangle of paper or canvas. I sense then how urgent it is, not only to concentrate on the composition of the rectangle itself, but also on that of its frontiers, on the margins’ (P. Alechinsky, quoted in Pierre Alechinsky: Margin and Center, exh. cat., Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1987, p. 15).
Contrasting with the riotously-coloured margins, in the centre of Entièrement peint à la main is a finely-executed drawing in austere black ink. In 1955, after Cobra had come to a standstill, Alechinsky travelled to Japan to study the art of calligraphy, where he befriended Morita Shiryu, the founding member of the influential avant-garde calligraphy group Bokujin-kai (Ink Human Society). Morita’s focus was the pure channelling of the inner state of mind through meditated yet spontaneous movement of both body and brush; a technique which found its equivalent in Cobra’s emphasis on spontaneous, liberated expression. As alluded to in the title of this work, Alechinsky fused the two into a process which emphasized the gestural action: ‘…a simple technique: painting in Indian ink on a large sheet of crumpled paper, the idea being, by varying the pressure of a well-held brush, to promote a range of effects from continuous line to hedgehopping. Indelible ink which dries immediately… makes it possible to add a wash… without upsetting the main drawing. To be done on the ground of course. Chinese and Japanese painters know this. For centuries they have written their paintings, with no danger of running, dominating them from above’ (P. Alechinsky, ‘Appel et Alechinsky encres à deux pinceaux, peintures, etc.’, 1982, reproduced in Cobra, exh. cat., Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels 2008, p. 244). With its kaleidoscopic, joyous surface, in which margin and centre vie for attention, Entièrement peint à la main is a powerful example of Alechinsky’s fusion of Cobra and calligraphy into a skilful, individual style.
Contrasting with the riotously-coloured margins, in the centre of Entièrement peint à la main is a finely-executed drawing in austere black ink. In 1955, after Cobra had come to a standstill, Alechinsky travelled to Japan to study the art of calligraphy, where he befriended Morita Shiryu, the founding member of the influential avant-garde calligraphy group Bokujin-kai (Ink Human Society). Morita’s focus was the pure channelling of the inner state of mind through meditated yet spontaneous movement of both body and brush; a technique which found its equivalent in Cobra’s emphasis on spontaneous, liberated expression. As alluded to in the title of this work, Alechinsky fused the two into a process which emphasized the gestural action: ‘…a simple technique: painting in Indian ink on a large sheet of crumpled paper, the idea being, by varying the pressure of a well-held brush, to promote a range of effects from continuous line to hedgehopping. Indelible ink which dries immediately… makes it possible to add a wash… without upsetting the main drawing. To be done on the ground of course. Chinese and Japanese painters know this. For centuries they have written their paintings, with no danger of running, dominating them from above’ (P. Alechinsky, ‘Appel et Alechinsky encres à deux pinceaux, peintures, etc.’, 1982, reproduced in Cobra, exh. cat., Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels 2008, p. 244). With its kaleidoscopic, joyous surface, in which margin and centre vie for attention, Entièrement peint à la main is a powerful example of Alechinsky’s fusion of Cobra and calligraphy into a skilful, individual style.