Alice grandit 1961

Pierre Alechinsky’s ‘Alice grandit’ is a painting which feels like a flurry of activity, a real sense of artmaking as a process. There's something so joyful about the way Alechinsky uses thin layers of paint to build up these almost dreamlike figures and shapes. You can really see the hand of the artist, the texture of the canvas peeking through in places and the little drips and splatters around the edges of forms. Look at the upper right of the canvas, there is a yellow patch with a white figure within it, it is full of movement and energy, as if the figure is about to dance or leap off the canvas. The contrast between the delicate lines and the areas of more saturated colour creates a dynamic push-and-pull, a sense of things emerging and dissolving. It reminds me a little of Joan Mitchell's work, in that sense of colour and gesture taking precedence over any fixed representation. I think that ultimately art is about embracing ambiguity and allowing for multiple readings.