Pierre Alechinsky (1927) - The Last Day (1964)

PIERRE ALECHINSKY

The Last Day (1964)
Offset print to the original on high-quality paper.
Perfect condition

Signed off on the print.

Paper 84 x 59.5
Figure 81 x 48



Details
In an art-historical sense, Alechinsky is inextricably linked with CoBrA (1948-1951), the post-war avant-garde movement of Danish, Belgian, and Dutch artists including Karel Appel, Asger Jorn, Constant Nieuwenhuys, and Corneille. During its existence, CoBrA declared war on Formalism, functioning as a European counterpart to American Abstract Expressionism. It aimed to create an 'international front of experimental artists,' as co-founder Christian Dotremont wrote. This monumental oil painting can be seen as a pinnacle of CoBrA's stylistic idiom. Gestural abstraction, Surrealist automatism, anti-intellectualism, and expressionistic pictorial spontaneity merge into a bizarre yet poetic apocalypse. The end of days and death are suggested by the horror vacui in a pictorial space populated by Boschian or Bruegelian creatures. These monstrous figures are an inherent part of CoBrA iconography. In this painting, the snake-like creatures (Serpents de mer), owls, ducks, fish, and skulls writhe in a multicolored manner across a mass of predominantly North Sea green paint. 'Evocation of greenery, in movement, the height of the wave. Fringes,' according to the artist himself. 'Such art is the expression of energy, it is the seismograph of inner tensions and emotional charges. It is supremely lyrical and dynamic,' wrote Karel Geirlandt in 1970. Inspired by Japanese calligraphers—only partially comparable to Jackson Pollock's Action Painting—Alechinsky bent over his linen or paper supports from around the mid-1950s. This allowed him to create space with his free hand and wrist, enabling a virtuoso play of line and color. This is how he developed a personal, graphically inspired style rooted in coincidence and the passionate moment of creation. 'A smudge, a line reveals itself to be a monster, with a gaping maw and a tongue that transforms into a bit of calligraphy.' This large-scale painting is also a homage to James Ensor. Alechinsky has always greatly admired Ensor's palette, humor, and grotesque fantasy world. Some commentators have suggested that the painting was made this size so it could confront Ensor’s iconic Christ’s Entry into Brussels. In 1968, the painting was exhibited at the contemporary art exhibition Kontrasten 47/67 at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, which subsequently purchased it. Ensor’s masterpiece was still on display there at the time. Since the museum’s reopening after extensive renovations, this largest and final oil painting by Alechinsky (who soon after discovered acrylic paint in America) has been placed alongside another of Ensor’s works in the introductory gallery. It is presented as a benchmark in Belgian modern art history.