Pierre Alechinsky

Jumbled Ephemerides

1980

© ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2023

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Not on display

Artist: Pierre Alechinsky born 1927
Original title: Ephémérides brouillées
Medium: Etching on paper
Dimensions: Image: 1680 × 899 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Purchased 1981
Reference: P07522

Display caption

‘Ephemerides’ are tables used by astronomers and navigators giving the position of comets, asteroids and planets at a given date. The circles in the horizontal panel dividing the composition suggest the orbits delineated by these astronomical charts. Although made nearly three decades after CoBrA disbanded, the organic forms and strange, dancing creatures evoked here recall the motifs and unrestrained energy of CoBrA art. The red calligraphic signature indicates Alechinsky’s debt to Japanese art and calligraphy.

Gallery label, July 2005

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Catalogue entry

P07522 JUMBLED STAR MAP 1980

Inscribed ‘Alechinsky’ bottom right and ‘1980’ and ‘9/35’ and ‘Ephémérides brouillées’

Etching, printed and published by Maeght Editeur, Paris, 66 1/8×35 3/8 (168×90)
Purchased from Maeght Editeur (Grant-in-Aid) 1980

This print and P07520 are from an extensive series of colour etchings on very fine Taiwanese papers made in the late 1970s. The prints relate to ink drawings Alechinsky has been making since about 1968.

Published in:
The Tate Gallery 1980-82: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions, London 1984