Karel Appel

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Appel, Karel (1921– ). Dutch abstract painter, sculptor, graphic artist, designer, ceramicist, and poet, regarded as the most powerful of the post-war generation of Netherlandish artists. He was born in Amsterdam, where he studied at the Academy, 1940–3, and he had his first one-man exhibition at Het Beerenhuis in Groningen in 1946. At this time he was influenced by Dubuffet and was attempting to work in the spirit of children's drawings. In 1948 he helped to found Reflex, the experimental group of Dutch and Belgian artists from which the Cobra group sprang, and in 1949 he painted a fresco in the cafeteria of Amsterdam City Hall which caused such controversy that it was covered for ten years. The following year he settled in Paris, where he found an influential supporter in the critic Michel Tapié, who organized exhibitions of his work. By the end of the decade he had an international reputation, having travelled widely and won the Unesco Prize at the Venice Biennale in 1954, the International Painting Prize at the São Paulo Bienal in 1959, the Guggenheim International Award in 1960, and several other honours. He first visited New York in 1957 and subsequently divided his time mainly between there, Paris, and Monaco.

His most characteristic paintings are in an extremely uninhibited and agitated Expressionist vein, with strident colours and violent brushwork applied with very thick impasto. The images usually look purely abstract at first glance, but they often retain suggestions of human masks or of animal or fantasy figures, sometimes fraught with terror as well as a childlike naivety: Herbert Read wrote that in looking at his pictures one has the impression of ‘a spiritual tornado that has left these images of its passage'. Such works were influential on Neo-Expressionism. In 1968 Appel began to make relief paintings, followed by painted sculptures in wood and then aluminium. He has also made ceramics and done a varied range of design work, including carpets, stained glass, and the scenery for a ballet, Can we Dance a Landscape?, for which he also wrote the plot; it was performed at the Paris Opéra in 1987.

Appel, Karel (b Amsterdam, 25 Apr. 1921). Dutch abstract painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, designer, and writer, regarded as the most powerful of the post-war generation of Dutch artists. In 1948 he was a founder of the Cobra group. He moved to Paris in 1950 and by the end of the decade he had gained an international reputation, having travelled widely and won several prestigious prizes. His most characteristic paintings are in an extremely uninhibited and agitated Expressionist vein, with strident colours and violent brushwork applied with very thick impasto. The images usually look purely abstract at first glance, but they often retain suggestions of human masks or of animal or fantasy figures, sometimes fraught with terror as well as a childlike naivety: Herbert Read wrote that in looking at his pictures one has the impression ‘of a spiritual tornado that has left these images of its passage’. Such works were influential on Neo-Expressionism. Appel has also made sculpture, prints, and ceramics, and he has done a wide range of design work, including the scenery for a ballet, Can We Dance a Landscape, for which he also wrote the plot; it was performed at the Paris Opéra in 1987.

Appel, Karel (1921– ). Dutch abstract painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, designer, and writer, regarded as the most powerful of the post-war generation of Dutch artists. In 1948 he was a founder of the Cobra group. He moved to Paris in 1950 and by the end of the decade he had gained an international reputation, having travelled widely and won several prestigious prizes. His most characteristic paintings are in an extremely uninhibited and agitated Expressionist vein, with strident colours and violent brushwork applied with very thick impasto. The images usually look purely abstract at first glance, but they often retain suggestions of human masks or of animal or fantasy figures, sometimes fraught with terror as well as a childlike naivety: Herbert Read wrote that in looking at his pictures one has the impression ‘of a spiritual tornado that has left these images of its passage’. Such works were influential on Neo-Expressionism. Appel has also made sculpture, prints, and ceramics, and he has done a wide range of design work, including the scenery for a ballet, Can We Dance a Landscape, for which he also wrote the plot; it was performed at the Paris Opéra in 1987.

Karel Appel , 1921–2006, Dutch painter. A member of CoBrA, the European group of the late 1940s to early 1950s allied with abstract expressionism , Appel reacted against the austerity of such earlier Dutch abstraction as that of de Stijl . Characterized by informal brush work, bright, bold color, and a slashing line, Appel's paintings often possess a primal, childlike quality. Later in life Appel turned to creating figurative sculpture. Examples of his work are in the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, Boymans-Van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam, and other collections.

Appel, Karel (1921– ) Dutch painter, sculptor and muralist. In the 1940s, he was one of several painters who reacted against the strict formalism of De Stijl, and invented a wildly expressionist language of his own, similar to abstract expressionism. His most powerful work, often portraying fantastic, aggressive and tragic figures, anticipated Art Informel. Appel is one of the most important post-1945 Dutch artists.