Verrerie allégorique 1981

Curator: Looking at "Verrerie allégorique" by Pierre Alechinsky, painted in 1981, it’s intriguing how he uses acrylic paint to build these ambiguous, almost dreamlike landscapes. What strikes you first? Editor: A real rush of sensation, honestly! The black background and these figure-like shapes are jarringly bold and demand that I decode it immediately. It's challenging and yet almost playful at the same time. What do you make of the allegorical title? Curator: Well, that's the invitation to the dance, isn't it? Alechinsky, as always, teases our perception. Do these figures, these colors… do they speak to broader cultural themes or perhaps specific experiences, and if so what exactly do they refer to? Editor: Definitely, it would be worth considering its place within 20th-century art, and the surge in psychoanalytic approaches and existential concerns following the world wars. Does it confront our post-war anxieties about identity, loss, or maybe transformation? The shapes give the impression of human-animal hybrids or fluid genders perhaps. Curator: I think that reading holds. Personally, the colors resonate with me. That striking blue recurs elsewhere in Alechinsky’s works. Blue for introspection? Editor: That’s valid! Though blue often plays within art and other cultural material as connected to the patriarchy and themes such as melancholy, distance, alienation, loss of emotional expression… The layering could hint at these suffocating constructions. Curator: Perhaps a point to keep thinking about when appreciating his artistic expression. Ultimately, he hands us the keys, doesn’t he? We’re meant to make this deeply personal. Editor: Exactly. And within these forms, within the constraints of our own perspectives. And isn’t that, in the end, the purpose of an effective political dialogue. A commitment to working through our discomfort to envision how we might do things differently? It asks of us so much and rewards the work with still more to see!