Karel Appel

Karel Appel

Karel Appel - Galerie Max Hetzler

A founding figure of CoBrA (1948-1951), which developed from the Dutch Experimental Group (1948), Karel Appel began his career in the aftermath of the Second World War. Over the course of six decades, the artist experimented widely, across painting, sculpture, drawing, and stage design, distinguishing himself for his astonishing capacity to innovate; Appel never settled in a signature style, media or subject. Going beyond his classical, academic training at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam, the artist looked at folk art, as well as the uninhibited work of children and the mentally ill, whilst also drawing from jazz’s spirit of improvisation. Alternating between abstraction and figuration, Appel adopted a material-oriented approach in his practice, and promoted a genuine form of expression, an art which writer and curator Klaus Ottmann describes as “divorced from any political or didactic purpose”.

“The Appel effect represents painting and sculpture at their best. It is close to the heart, animalistic, idealistic and thoroughly experimental. It playfully combines ideology with matter and form, and pushes us beyond the boundaries imposed by the human condition.”

K. Ottmann, ’The Appel Effect’, in: Karel Appel. Retrospective, exh. cat., Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, The Hague; Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2016, p. 46

Image: Karel Appel, Nude no. 32, 1995, © Karel Appel Foundation / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2019

Solo Exhibitions

Karel Appel - Galerie Max Hetzler

Late Nudes, 1985 – 1995

Goethestraße 2/3, Berlin

15 November 2019 – 11 January 2020
Preview: Friday 15 November, 6 – 8pm

Selected Institutional Exhibitions

KAREL APPEL

A Retrospective

Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, The Hague

16 January – 16 May 2016

Biography

Show Vita
Show Selected Bibliography

Selected Press

Les Inrockuptibles July 2017

Holland Herold February 2017

News

Karel Appel et al.

Chagall, Picasso, Mondrian and others: Migrant Artists in Paris (group show)
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
21 September 2019 – 2 February 2020

At the beginning of the last century, Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso, Piet Mondrian and other acclaimed and unknown artists move to Paris, the art capital of the world and a place where freedom flourishes, in many forms. They must learn to survive in a liberal society that is at the same time ...
Karel Appel