Pierre Alechinsky is a Belgian artist. He was born in
Brussels,
Belgium in
1927. In
1944 he attended the
l'Ecole nationale supérieure d'Architecture et des Arts décoratifs de La Cambre[?], Brussels where he studied illustration techniques, printing and photography. In
1945 he discovered the work of
Henri Michaux[?],
Jean Dubuffet[?] and developed a friendship with the art critic
Jacques Putman[?]. In
1949 he joined
Christian Dotremont[?],
Karel Appel and
Asger Jorn to form the art group
Cobra. He participated both the Cobra exhibitions and went to Paris to study engraving with
Stanley William Hayter [?] in
1951. In
1954 he had his first exhibition in
Paris and started to become interested in oriental calligraphy.
By 1960 he had exhibited in London, Berne and at the Venice Biennial[?], and then in Pittsburg, New York, Amsterdam and Silkeborg as his international reputation grew. he worked with Wallace Ting[?] and continued to be close to Christian Dotremont[?]. He also developed links with Andre Breton. His international career continued throughout the seventies and by 1983 he became Professor of painting at the Ecole nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts[?], Paris.
In 1994 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Free University of Brussells, and in 1995 one of his designs was used on a Belgian stamp.