Al'Jotte Pie (Tarte Al'Jotte) from the portfolio Pencil on Shell 1971

Curator: Here we have Pierre Alechinsky's 1971 lithograph, a mixed-media print entitled "Al'Jotte Pie (Tarte Al'Jotte) from the portfolio Pencil on Shell". What strikes you first about this image? Editor: Well, visually, it's quite playful, almost whimsical. The concentric circles and scattered colours remind me a bit of a deconstructed board game or some kind of coded map. The color palette is muted yet lively. It's simultaneously inviting and a little perplexing. Curator: I think perplexed is a great point. Alechinsky, as an abstract expressionist and associated with the Cobra group, was always questioning the traditional modes of representation, pushing boundaries of form, and rejecting established artistic norms in postwar Europe. In this context, it represents a critical shift from the constraints of figurative painting to embrace of spontaneity and chance. Editor: So you see it as a form of rebellion or breaking free? It certainly carries a sense of disrupting expectations. The title is also very telling. In some dialects of the Walloon language "al'jotte" refers to beet leaves—a reference to both cuisine and working class culture. How would that title play into it? Curator: The "Tarte Al'Jotte", a humble beet leaf pie, becomes in Alechinsky’s hands a motif for exploring themes of identity and cultural heritage through food. Here, though, what are we even eating? There’s that inscription in French, “chagrin aux cognoscenti," translating to, more or less, grief to the experts. This all contributes to that sense of something playful—he wants to make us laugh even at our academic traditions! Editor: Interesting that you read that frustration in relation to a formal tradition. What I appreciate about Alechinsky is his ability to incorporate diverse mediums like lithography and integrate visual texts. The lithographic process allowed him to create these dynamic, textural surfaces, which are amplified through his combination with the etching technique. And that title of the series, "Pencil on Shell"? Are you seeing links with, say, environmental issues or commentary on organic life? Curator: That's a solid interpretive route to consider. As we wrap up here, looking back at this composition, I would emphasize the print as a statement of accessible art in a rapidly changing society. What does that impulse suggest to you? Editor: For me, it underlines the notion of how we are, ourselves, constructing social value even now.