kashew (asker) Apr 23, 2009:

Ex: "alchimiste-enfant" Jim Dine, qualifié tour à tour d’artiste pop ou print junkie, étiquettes par trop catégorisantes, revendique pour lui-même le terme d’hokusaï, c’est-à-dire « vieux garçon fou d’estampes ». Mais n’est-il que cela ? Puisant son inspiration chez les plus grands lithographes tels que Rembrandt, Munch, Giorgio Morandi, l’alchimiste-enfant en quête d’une forme émotionnelle ontologique se place aux côtés de Picasso ou de David Hockney, artistes qui ont également travaillé avec A. Crommelynck. En choisissant Pinocchio, il troque le jouet-pistolet de Lichtenstein pour un jouet moins brutal, plus évocateur, riche des possibles d’une véritable quête, avec ses erreurs et ses errances (l’école buissonnière, les mauvaises rencontres) et au bout du compte, la promesse d’une récompense, sous la forme d’une belle lithographie. - Transatlantica

kashew (asker) Apr 23, 2009:

Nearly there! I think I'm going for infant-alchemist: it has a nice Dylan Thomas sound to it in the middle - ...fantal..! Then get the child thing in later.
[I thought of the Sorcerer's Apprentice thing too!]

Tony M Apr 23, 2009:

sorcerer... and apprentice I think the idea of 'alchemist' is very important: someone who is trying to take motley ingredients and create something from them (turn them into gold etc.) — I think this equates well with the idea of an artist/sculptor, but is rather different from the concept of 'sorcerer', which conjures up more of an image of magic, witchcraft,spells, etc.

As regards 'apprentice', I don't feel this is at all what is meant by 'enfant' — to me, the term suggest the naïveté of a child, in the sense that alchemists might very well try combinations of the most unlikely ingredients, somewhat at random, in just the way that a child might; the idea of an 'apprentice' as a junior learning the trade isn't really what it is all about here, IMHO

polyglot45 Apr 23, 2009:

like an apprentice alchemist, he plays and ... makes child's play of

Bourth (X) Apr 23, 2009:

sorceror's apprentice??? Is "alchimiste-enfant" an established concept in any language?

Emma Paulay Apr 23, 2009:

I like both FWIW, I think both are good solutions, whether you use "child's play" or not.

kashew (asker) Apr 23, 2009:

2 x play Maybe I should make it apprentice/infant-alchemist to avoid child twice in the phrase?