Dimensions: image: 247 x 349 mm
Copyright: © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2014 | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Curator: Alechinsky's "Something of a World" presents us with an intriguing puzzle, doesn’t it? The Tate holds this compelling piece. Editor: Absolutely, it’s like a half-remembered dream, all swirling lines and cryptic symbols. A bit unsettling, actually. Curator: His etching style, with those dense, almost frenetic lines, it does create a sense of unease, I agree. But look at how the handwritten text interacts with the imagery. Editor: Yes, the text seems to float above a more chaotic space, perhaps a subconscious landscape. It's as if the words are trying to bring order to the chaos below, but maybe failing. Curator: Precisely, and that tension between order and chaos, conscious and unconscious, is where the real energy of the piece lies. Editor: It leaves you with this sense of something just beyond your grasp. I appreciate that. Curator: Indeed, a glimpse into something just out of reach.
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http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/alechinsky-something-of-a-world-p77241
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In the upper part of Something of a World the artist transcribed his own poem in mirror-image with both hands simultaneously. The personal quality of hand-writing greatly appealed to CoBrA artists. ‘The important thing,’ Alechinsky wrote, ‘is to discover an inner script ... with which we can explore ourselves organically.’ Alechinsky said that he painted as if he was a spinning-top, unable to control his own movements. This is evident in The Night in which twists and twirls of white on a black ground evoke luminous night forms. Gallery label, July 2005
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