Born in Brussels in 1927, Pierre Alechinsky was admitted to the prestigious La Cambre school in 1944, where he trained in book illustration and typography. In addition to his studies, he practised
In 1947, he joined the Jeune Peinture Belge group, which enabled him to exhibit his work at the Lou Cosyn gallery. As a painter, draughtsman and engraver, Pierre Alechinsky’s work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions and is widely represented in institutional collections around the world.
In 1951, Pierre Alechinsky moved to Paris, where he met Stanley William Hayter, a British engraver associated with the École de Paris. From 1952 onwards, Alechinsky worked at Atelier 17, a veritable laboratory for modern engraving where many artists had been introduced to printmaking by Hayter. It was during this period that Alechinsky began a correspondence with Shyriu Morita, a central figure in the development of avant-garde Japanese calligraphy. This meeting was decisive for the Belgian artist, who became fascinated by this art and its techniques. This affinity is particularly evident in his drawings, where the use of brush and Indian ink is recurrent.
The writer and curator of libraries Yves Peyré wrote of Pierre Alechinsky: « [He] is enamoured of paper that cracks or curls, he loves the pencil that glides along slowly, the ink that proudly marks its mark ».