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Lots to be sold at our Important Sale: Modern & Contemporary Art + Design & Watches 12 – 14 November 2024
”Sometimes my work look very childish, or child-like, schizophrenic or stupid, you know. But that was a good thing for me. Because for me, the material is the paint itself, in the mass of paint, I find my imagination and got to paint it.” Karel Appel
The 8th of November 1948 marks a central point within the Western art movement. At Café Notre Dame in Paris a group of young artists and intellectuals formed the beginning of a renewal of the European art scene. The COBRA group was short-lived but influenced many following generations of artists. 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 tried to break away from the present emphasis on form and intellect, and instead encourage a spontaneous way of painting. They drew inspiration from the naive drawings made by children and the art of primitive cultures as well as contemporary art movements such as Art brut and artists like Jean Dubuffet, Paul Klee and Joan Miró. The core value that they sought was the sense of innocence and naivety, as a form of aesthetic uncorrupted by the Western tradition. By this, the artists searched to find an expression of hope and optimism in contrast to the continents dark past.
Karel Appel was to become the embodiment of these ideas. His paintings exude imagination and spontaneity, expressed by free, often wild brushstrokes and a use of 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 having a spontaneous and intuitive approach to his motifs. In his early years he was highly influenced by the cubist works of Pablo Picasso. Together with his friend and artist Corneille, Appel travelled to Liège in the mid 1940s and came across the works of Jean Dubuffet, where children and mentally ill influenced the compositions. Appel was the co-founder of Experimentele Groep together with artists Anton Rooskens, Theo Wolvecamp, Jan Nieuwenhuijs and Eugène Brands. These artists later came in contact with artists who represented 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. The jazz musicians played an important role in his painting as he found similar characteristics within the COBRA movement. From now on, he applied thick layers of paint, sometimes directly from the tube and modelled it with his hands. Through his colourful works, embracing Appel’s free spirit and painted with energetic brushstrokes in strong colours, he transformed his artistry into a joyful celebration of life.
Presented in this sale are two paintings from the Circus series, lot 561 and 562. Both of these paintings express Appel’s sparkling celebration of the circus and its practitioners: the clowns and the animals. Dated in 1977, these paintings on wood with reliefs, appears to be the models for two of the motifs in Appel’s print series “Circus” that was published the year after, in 1978, and consists of wood engravings in colours with embossing. The Circus-suite is one of Appel’s most popular and appreciated themes, where the different characters comes to live through the dark background in colourful and cheerful gestures from the arena. In the most vivid compositions and a strong palette, we meet the elephant who seems to be blowing a balloon with its trunk and a dog dribbling a ball. By embracing the fantasy and remaining true to his childish side, Karel Appel brilliantly masters to transform his work into something unique and characteristic, a style that will forever be a synonym for his innovative artist life. ■