Appel, Karel (1921-2006) - 1958 Beach Life (Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C.)
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 traveled widely and won several prestigious prizes. His most characteristic paintings are in an extremely uninhibited and agitated Expressionist vein, with strident colors 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. 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.
Appel, Karel (1921-2006) - 1958 Beach Life (Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C.)
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 traveled widely and won several prestigious prizes. His most characteristic paintings are in an extremely uninhibited and agitated Expressionist vein, with strident colors 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. 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.