Pierre Alechinsky: Margin and Center
Contributions by Pierre Alechinsky, Michael Gibson, and Octavio Paz
Published in 1987
176 pages, fully illustrated
Softcover
While acknowledging the Belgian artist's involvement in the Cobra movement, this non-traditional retrospective catalogue features Pierre Alechinsky's mature style and his preoccupation with what he refers to as "marginal work." This intriguing look into Alechinsky's progression of a particular form includes an engaging interview with the artist conducted by Michael Gibson, over one hundred color and black-and-white images, a bibliography, and a selected exhibition history. The catalogue opens with the poem "Central Park" by Octavio Paz, as a compliment to Alechinsky's painting of the same name.
Beyond the frame there is . . . well, all the rest! The roving hordes, the outside world, so powerful when you compare it to a small rectangle of paper or canvas. I sense then how urgent it is, not only to concentrate on the composition of the rectangle itself, but also on that of its frontiers on the margins. Progressively, as I produced my paintings with margins (I have been painting such works episodically, ever since I did Central Park in 1965), I found myself stressing the rectangle, underscoring it even, whether by means of a fringe of pictures around the center, or by materializing a border.
