Pierre Alechinsky: In Paperland

This exhibition, conceived in close collaboration with the artist and coinciding with his centenary year, marks the first major solo presentation at a UK public institution for over six decades. Featuring over fifty works spanning the 1960s to the 2010s, the exhibition will trace the trajectory of one of the most inventive and experimental voices in postwar modern art. Rarely-seen Indian ink drawings will be presented alongside monumental all-over painterly configurations in acrylic, in celebration of a radical and experimental figure who has had a profound influence on generations of artists from Keith Haring to Matt Copson. For more than eight decades, Alechinsky has created a graphically rich and exuberant body of paintings and works on paper that are characterised by a bold, spontaneous and expressive pictorial language. Fusing organic shapes, anthropomorphic figures, surreal landscapes and imaginary creatures, Alechinsky frequently incorporates calligraphic marks and gestural brushstrokes that engage with the history of painting, printmaking and drawing, pushing these mediums to new extremes. A signature device in his compositions is the use of ‘marginal remarks’. This framing device evokes both comic strips and predella panels of medieval and Renaissance art, where black-and-white vignettes serve as surreal, parallel narratives. A major catalogue will accompany the exhibition designed by Philippe Ducat in close collaboration with the artist. Richly illustrated, it includes a compelling text by French feminist philosopher and writer Hélène Cixous – published in English for the first time – alongside contributions by the late surrealist poet Joyce Mansour, among others. The publication will also feature a conversation between Alechinsky and Serpentine’s Artistic Director, Hans Ulrich Obrist, and an extensive chronology compiled by Serpentine’s Exhibition Curator, Chris Bayley.