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Karel Appel
Appel,
Karel (1921- ), Dutch painter and sculptor who helped to
pioneer an unrestrained, physical style of painting in Europe in
the period following World War II (after 1945). Appel's work is
distinguished by thick application of paint, violent colors, and
vehement brush stroke combined with a sense of childlike naïveté.
Born
in Amsterdam, Appel studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts
there from 1940 to 1943. After the isolation and oppressive
atmosphere of the war years (World War II, 1939-1945) in the
Netherlands, Appel was drawn to the raw, expressive work of French
artist Jean Dubuffet, whose primitive imagery and energetic style
contrasted with the more formal, geometric work that was dominant
in Europe at that time. Appel first aroused public interest in
1946, when he was included in an exhibition entitled Young
Artists at Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum.
In
1948, together with Dutch artist Corneille, Danish artist Asger
Jorn, and Belgian artist Pierre Alechinsky, Appel helped form an
experimental group called Cobra. Finding inspiration in folk art,
children's drawings, and prehistoric art, Cobra glorified instinct
and opposed rigorously intellectual approaches to art, aims it
held in common with a similar movement in the United States,
abstract expressionism. In 1949 Appel was commissioned to paint a
mural for the cafeteria of the Amsterdam City Hall. His response,
a wildly colored painting of bitterly smiling children, so
disturbed the employees who took their meals there that the City
Council was pressured into ordering it covered over, despite
protest by the artistic community. In 1950 Appel moved to Paris,
France, where he became well known for his humorous, crude imagery
and stormy painting style, seen in works such as Amorous Dance
(1955, Tate Gallery, London, England).
Appel
was awarded the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) prize at the Venice Biennale
exhibition in 1954 and in 1960 was given first prize at the
Guggenheim International exhibition. In the late 1960s, he began
working with three-dimensional forms, producing, first, a series
of large relief sculptures in painted wood and, later, brightly
colored plastic reliefs and large-scale aluminum sculptures. In
1972 he began to live and work part of each year in New York City.
His celebrated work Appel Circus (1976-1978) combines
thirty color etchings with fifteen painted wooden sculptures. In
1982 he collaborated with American poet Allen Ginsberg on a
colorful series of paintings and visual poems. Since 1990 Appel
has created sculptures combining wood, plaster, and found objects.
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