Pierre Alechinsky, who was born in 1927 in Brussels, Belgium, studied at the Brussel Academy of Architecture. He had a strong impact on Cobra. Being the youngest member of the Cobra group and participant in the 1949 exhibition, Alechinsky was also active i the Cobra publications. In Brussels there is a building he refurbished, this building became the scene of many Cobra activities.

The group dissolved in 1951 and that's also the year when he moved to Paris and were he's still living at this time. His greatest passion was Japanese calligraphy, it also gave him inspiration. Alechinsky was entranced by the art of bookmaking, this passion he fulfilled in his 40's by studying typography, illustration and engraving at the School of Decorative Arts in Brussels. In Paris he shows his lithographs at the Galerie Maeght. In 1949 his future a an artist was launched as an active member of the group Cobra, this after he me Christian Dotremont.

After studying calligraphy in Japan in 1955, he worked on canvases spread onto the floor which he painted with Japanese horsehair calligraphy brushes. Alechinsky is known to speak about his left hand as "the one that has known only liberty and pleasure". H paints, even still today, with his left hand, this to be true to the spirit of the Cobra movement.

The work of Alechinsky can always be recognized by the funky black and white graphic in cartoon-like borders who seem to restrain within the central canvas a violent explosion of color and form. These graffiti-filled window frames draw one's attention towards th eye of the storm. Later works show more free-flowing serpentine lines to entice and seduce.