Pierre Alechinsky

Heffel Auction House Biography and Notes

A modern take on the classic reclining nude composition, Linges de corps is a stunning example of Belgian artist Pierre Alechinsky’s work. Soft pink shapes snake across the canvas over a navy backdrop, and cobalt blue lines and yellow and moss green spots delineate and streak across the anthropomorphic form. All around the edges, an array of mustard, blue, red, yellow and turquoise touches frame the work. The resulting composition shows great fluidity and verve that points to the artist’s affiliation with the Cobra group. From 1949 until their dissolution in 1951, Alechinsky was one of the central figures of this group of artists that included painters such as Karel Appel and Asger Jorn. Their expressive and vivid paintings were inspired by folk and children’s art, as well as the works of Paul Klee and Joan Miró. Throughout his career, he showed his works in major art fairs and museums such as the Venice Biennale, the São Paulo Biennial, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, to name only a few. In 1983, he became a professor of painting at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and he currently lives and works in that city.