Karel Appel (Amsterdam, 1921 - Zurich, 2006)
Karel
Appel met Corneille in the years 1940-1943 during his education at the
Rijksacademie in Amsterdam. In 1946 he travelled with him to Liège,
where the pair held a joint exhibition in 1947. He also made a visit to
Paris with Corneille. On his return he got to know Constant, and in
1948 the three of them exhibited in Amsterdam.
Appel, Corneille
and Constant together with Anton Rooskens, Theo Wolvecamp and Jan
Nieuwenhuys (Constant's brother) formed the Dutch Experimental Group on
16 July 1948. Appel was a co-founder of CoBrA on 8 November 1948, and
he is probably the best known member of the movement in the Netherlands.
He
became famous above all for his credo "I just mess around at it." His
work created a great deal of uproar in the Dutch art world of the 1940s
and 1950s. Indeed, his 1949 mural "Questioning children" in the
cafeteria of Amsterdam Town Hall created quite a scandal. At the
insistence of the indignant civil servants, the City Council had this
"Appel of discord" covered up, and the work of art disappeared under
wallpaper for ten years.
Appel always favoured the call to
direct expression in paint, rather than the marxist analysis of Western
civilisation put forward by Constant; he never paid much attention to
the theoretical pamphlets of Constant and Dotremont. During the CoBrA
years he painted innocent child creatures and fabulous beasts in bright
colours, simple forms and bold lines.
After the break-up of
CoBrA he managed to maintain the emotional approach to his subject. In
the course of the 1950s he developed a heavier painting style, with
line and areas of colour melting together into a moving mass of paint.
In addition to painting the versatile Appel made assemblages and
sculptures, and also wrote poetry. Until his death, on May 3, 2006, in
Zurich, Karel Appel stayed the hard working, almost obsessed painter he
always was.