India ink on paper mounted on canvas, surrounded by an acrylic painted border made of 12 assembled panels
710.0 x 337.0 （厘米）
279.5 x 132.7 （吋）
In 1974, Pierre Alechinsky created a very large ink on paper piece, in a size that he had as yet never used. Its ‘format’ was that of a ceiling. But the project, which at the time was called The Sky Overhead, didn’t happen and the large ink work for ceiling became a mural painting instead.
In 1977, when Alechinsky received the prestigious Andrew W. Mellon Award (formerly called the Carnegie Award), he decided to include this large nocturnal painting in the exhibition at the Carnegie Institute of Pittsburgh, which toured to the Art Gallery of Ontario, in Toronto.
The painting then returned to Europe and was re-integrated into the painter’s studio. In 1996, Alechinsky decided to enlarge the painting even further (thinking: since it is quite too big to be shown, might as well make it bigger still). All around the gigantic ink painting, he traced a painted edge combining 12 additional panels in acrylics.
The painting is now more luminous but it remained hidden away in the artist’s storage. It received a new name, The Abyss, and in Alechinsky’s work titles are always important. From the erstwhile ceiling we now descend into the abyss.
