K. (KAREL) APPEL 1921 Amsterdam - 2006 Zürich (Switzerland) Untitled

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The 8th of November 1948 marks a pivotal moment in the Western art movement. At Café Notre Dame in Paris, a group of young artists and intellectuals laid the foundations for a renewal of the European art scene. The COBRA group was short-lived but influenced many generations of artists to come. Through art, the group sought to spark the rebirth of the human spirit and a primitive sense of vitality and creative energy. Their stance was shaped by the aftermath of the war and what they saw as the stagnation of art. The group sought to break away from the present emphasis on form and intellect and instead encourage a more spontaneous way of painting. They drew inspiration from the naive drawings made by children, the art of primitive cultures, and contemporary art movements such as Art brut, as well as artists like Jean Dubuffet, Paul Klee and Joan Miró. The core value they sought was a sense of innocence and naiveté, as an aesthetic uncorrupted by the Western tradition. In doing so, they sought to express hope and optimism in contrast to the continent's dark past.

Karel Appel was to become the embodiment of these ideas. His paintings exude imagination and spontaneity, expressed through free, often wild brushstrokes and thick layers of a vibrant array of colour. Appel saw the process of painting as more important than the finished work itself, and became known for his spontaneous, intuitive approach to his motifs.

In his early years, he was strongly influenced by the Cubist works of Pablo Picasso. Together with his friend and artist Corneille, Appel travelled to Liège in the mid-1940s and encountered the works of Jean Dubuffet, which were influenced by children and the mentally ill. Appel was a co-founder of Experimentele Groep, together with artists Anton Rooskens, Theo Wolvecamp, Jan Nieuwenhuijs and Eugène Brands. These artists later came into contact with artists who shared the same ideas in Denmark and Belgium, eventually forming the COBRA group.

In 1957, Karel Appel moved to New York and continued his search for new inspiration. Jazz musicians played an important role in his painting, as he found similar characteristics in the COBRA movement. From then on, he applied thick layers of paint, sometimes directly from the tube, and modelled them with his hands. “Untitled” is a colourful work that embraces Appel’s free spirit. In many ways, it highlights the inner core of the COBRA movement through its bright colours and swirling paint. The figure is placed at the centre of the composition, built up from a number of different colours.