(19 October 1927 in Saint-Gilles-lez-Bruxelles - Belgium)
As a student of typography and illustration at the Ecole nationale d'architecture et des arts décoratifs de la Cambre (Brussels), he discovered in 1945 the work of Henri Michaux de Dubuffet, the Surrealists, and became friends with the art critic Jacques Putman.
In 1949, he met Dotremont and joined the Cobra movement that same year with Asger Jorn and Karel Appel) and was one of the most productive members until the dissolution of the movement in 1951. Alechinsky took part in the first International Cobra Exhibition at the Stedjelijk Museum in Amsterdam and in 1954 he met the Chinese painter Wallace Ting who would play an important role in the development of his work.
In the 1950s, the artist spent time in the Far East, then in the United States; he became interested in Japanese calligraphy and Action Painting, which would have a lasting influence on his work.
The artist produced a very large number of lithographs and engravings; passionate about books, he illustrated poems and texts (Cioran, Butor, Yves Bonnefoy, André Frénaud, Tardieu, etc.) and published numerous works.
In 1983, Alechinsky became professor of painting at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts in Paris.
Geneviève Asse, real name Geneviève Bodin, born in Vannes on January 24, 1923, joined the École nationale des arts décoratifs in 1940 and exhibited at the Salon des moins de trente ans and the Salon d'automne.
After the war, where she joined the FFI, she joined the Groupe de L'Echelle and met Samuel Beckett, André Lanskoy, Serge Poliakoff, Serge Charchoune, Nicolas de Staël, Bram and Geer van Velde.
Geneviève Asse now divides her work between Paris and L'île aux Moines, and is considered one of the major artists of abstraction in France. She recently exhibited her engraved work at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (2002) and her "Peintures" at the Centre Pompidou (2013).
"Behind the horizon, the dawn, shaded greys, transparent ultramarine blues, whites that disappear in the grain of the canvas, nothing outside of time. "(Working Notes, 1974)
