I would love to use the term “inner freedom” to describe how Alain made his work and lived his life accordingly.

Many of us have read those books that elevate the spirit of the artistic bohemian community where artists, writers, poets, actors, musicians, dancers and other creative individuals cultivate their lives and their works as they follow their own calling in various manners that could fulfill their growth. Remember The Banquet Years: The Origins of the Avant-Garde in France, 1885 to World War I (1958) from Roger Shattuck. It’s an imminent read of the culture of the Bohemia at the turn of the century in Paris, that had planted seeds on third high ground which lead to a period of renewal and accomplishment, later a groundwork for dadaism, surrealism. Henri Rousseau Alfred Jarry, Erik Satie, Guillaume Appolinaire to name a few, using this quartet as a window into an era where exploring the culture is at the very foundation of modern art. Whatever is the social cultural phenomena that lie behind the emergence of such highly idiosyncratic individual artistic community, we are reminded what was then called the Belle Époque, dating roughly from 1872 to 1914.  The most congenial atmosphere where rents were low and living conditions were conducive to all forms of creation. Remember Montmartre, the Bateau Lavoir,  Picasso, Braque, Juan Gris, Modigliani, Soutine, to name only a few. Followed the consequential classic The New York School: A Cultural Reckoning by Dore Ashton, in 1973. We remember how the international art world came or turned from Paris to New York. We remember the vitality of the cultural community of New York schools artists and intellectuals born out of the Great Depression leading to the birth of the WPA program in the 30s, artists that we know : poets, writers, painters like De Kooning, Pollock, Gorki, Kline, Pollock, Guston, Rudy Buckhardt, Saul Bellow, Marianne Moore, and countless others, interacting directly or indirectly with European immigrants fleeing from Nani Germany like Max Ernst, Duchamp, André Breton, Mondrian. We felt this continued history prior and after the second war leading to the subsequent decade of 50s, 60s and 70s. Though it began to fade away by the 80s …

So the arrival of Alain Kirili and Ariane Lopez-Huici to New York City,

more specifically on White Street in Tribeca was an essential addition to that tradition of immigrant artists making New York such an exciting cultural hub for those who long to live and work in the space that have no limitations between the visual arts, the poetry, music and dance and so on.

We are grateful to Alain and Ariane for creating such an amazing community where we have been there experiencing poetry reading, dance and music around his amazing work, and Ariane’s amazing photographs. This is so amazing. It’s exactly how I feel about the Brooklyn Rail.  That’s what we do :

cross-pollinate, bring the community together ! ”

Phong Bui

A Tribute to Alain Kirili, 2021