Cobra

Cobra. A group of Expressionist painters formed in Paris in 1948 by a number of Netherlandish and Scandinavian artists. The name derived from the first letters of the capital cities of the three countries of the artists involved—Copenhagen, Brussels, Amsterdam. The Dutchman Karel Appel, the Belgian Corneille, and the Dane Asger Jorn were the leading figures among the founders, and the artists who subsequently joined included Pierre Alechinsky, Jean Atlan, and William Gear. Christian Dotremont, who suggested the group's name, was the main spokesman. The aim of the Cobra artists was to give free expression to the unconscious, unimpeded and undirected by the intellect. In their emphasis on spontaneous gesture, they had affinities with the American Action Painters, but they differed in their strange and fantastic imagery, related in some instances to Nordic mythology and folklore, in others to various magical or mystical symbols of the unconscious. Their approach was similar to that of the Art Informel painters Fautrier and Wols, but more savage and vigorous. The group published a journal and various pamphlets and short monographs. It arranged Cobra exhibitions in Copenhagen (1948), Amsterdam (1949), and Liège (1951), but the members soon went their own ways and the group disbanded in 1951.