Karel Appel
Karel Appel is one of the founding members of the CoBrA movement in the 1950s. Later Appel emerged as one of the most important modern artists of the 20th century for his use of color. Appel is held in the collections of innumerable museums worldwide.
Karel Appel is the only personality in Dutch art since 1945 to have established an international reputation. Born and bred in Amsterdam, Appel left Holland in 1950 for an unattached life in France and America, but he still represents the Dutch tradition in painting, from Rembrandt through Van Gogh. In his home country, he symbolizes the renewal that has taken place over the past thirty years. For the general public, Appel is the a of Cobra, the international movement that grew out of the Experimental Group Holland. The contribution of that group to the development of European art in the years 1948 – 1951 has not yet been fully appreciated.
The situation in art was vague in the extreme when the Dutch experimentalists, coming together with kindred spirits from Denmark and Belgium, deci- ded to start up a new group. Cobra took itS name from the three cities its members came from: Copenhagen, Brussels, Amsterdam, but it also carries with it the connotations of violence and revolt that are associated with the snake. Cobra put forward spontaneity as against all the -isms that had turned into formulas and were throttling art. When Appel, suiting the action to the word, let out his Cry of Freedom in 1948, it was as if all hell had broken loose. The then director of the municipal museum in Amsterdam, Willem Sandberg, who came out strongly for the Cobra movement, was to say: “For the worthy citizen, the name of Karel Appel means total anarchy.”
By this time, all that is ancient history, but Appel still goes on. Maybe he no longer bawls out Freedom over the roofs of the world, but it’s become integrated into his whole life-style. He is the perfect image of the free artist, the elusive asocial figure who is hailed as a hero after being neglected and scorned. As art hero, Appel now has Success and fame, and these tend to appeal more to the imagination than the actual work of the imagination itself. But if Appel is a myth, and he knows well enough how to preserve and exploit that myth, behind the myth there is an artist who in the privacy of his studio has to struggle with the power of the imagination that he has conjured up, and who has to prove himself continually.
The myth is no more than a smokescreen. The life-story of a Rembrandt or a Van Gogh may bring us closer to the man, but it does not penetrate through to the artist, whose reality is harder to get at. The Appel story is growing every day, but it has precious little to do with the creative life of the artist who works with colour, space and form, conjuring up a world that reflects not only his own inner reality but the reality of our times.
“My paint tube is like a rocket which describes its own space. I try to make the impossible possible. What is happening I cannot forsee; it is a surprise. Painting, like passion, is an emotion full of truth and rings a living sound–like the roar coming from the lion’s breast.”
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Karel Appel CATS 1979 Box Portfolio of 17 Signed Lithographs on Japan Paper with Book
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Karel Appel 1979 Signed Limited Edition Abstract Art 1979
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Karel Appel 1969 Signed Limited Edition Lithograph
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Karel Appel 1971 Blue Mask Signed Limited Edition Lithograph
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Karel Appel Dancing In The Spring Signed Limited Edition Silkscreen
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Karel Appel Portrait Of Eugene Pastel On Paper
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Karel Appel Sunny Parrot 1974 Signed Limited Edition Silkscreen
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Karel Appel Sunny Beach Life 1974 Signed Limited Edition Silkscreen
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Karel Appel 1979 Signed Limited Edition Abstract Art Personage in Red
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Karel Appel Moving Couple in a Landscpe Pencil Signed Lithograph 1980 Artist Proof
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Karel Appel Moving Face in a Blue Sea Rare Pencil Signed Lithograph Abstract Art 1980
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Karel Appel Summer Couple 1979 Abstract Signed Art Lithograph
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Karel Appel Face Pencil Signed Dedication Abstract Art Lithograph 1980
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Karel Appel 1970 Green Face Signed Limited Edition Lithograph
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Karel Appel Face in the Colorful Rain Pencil Signed Abstract Art 1980
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Karel Appel SLEEPY BIRD Rare Pencil Signed Lithograph Abstract Art 1980
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Karel Appel Here I am again Pencil Signed Original Abstract Art 1980
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Karel Appel Walking Colors Pencil Signed Original Abstract Art 1980
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Karel Appel Clown Cat Pencil Signed Limited Edition Art Lithograph 1979
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Karel Appel Sitting in a Landscape Pencil Signed Original Lithograph
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Karel Appel Another Blue Head Again Pencil Signed Original Lithograph
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Karel Appel 1978 Ten (10) Signed Limited Edition Lithographs
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Karel Appel 1978 Signed Limited Edition Lithograph
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Karel Appel 1978 About A Couple Signed Limited Edition Art Lithograph
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Karel Appel 1978 Head on Water Signed Limited Edition Lithograph
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Karel Appel 1978 Bull Dog Signed Limited Edition Lithograph
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Karel Appel 1978 Moving in Blue Signed Limited Edition Lithograph
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Karel Appel 1979 Frightened Cat Signed Limited Edition Lithograph
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Karel Appel 1979 Devil Cat Signed Limited Edition Lithograph
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Karel Appel Smiling Cat 1980 Signed Limited Edition Lithograph
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Karel Appel Green Cat 1980 Signed Lithograph Rare Proof
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Karel Appel Cat In Night 1980 Signed Original Lithograph Rare Proof
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Karel Appel CATS 1978 Lithograph 25.5” x 32.25” Original Vintage lithograph
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Karel Appel 1979 Head Like An Animal Signed Limited Edition Lithograph
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Karel Appel (Running Horse) Framed Lithograph Pencil Signed Original Art
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Karel Appel (Dream Colored Head) Original Signed Art
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Karel Appel BIG HEAD COMING DOWN Signed Original Lithograph
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Karel Appel 1978 RESTING CAT Signed Limited Edition Lithograph
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Karel Appel Floating Green Passion Signed Original Art Silkscreen 1979
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Karel Appel CAT Limited Edition Signed Art 1978 Lithograph
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Karel Appel 1979 Large Silkscreen The Silver Kiss
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Karel Appel (Floating Red Passion)Art Silkscreen 1979
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Karel Appel Flying Owl Abstract Animal Signed Original Art 1980
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Karel Appel 1979 Floating Black Passion Large Limited Edition Signed Silkscreen
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Karel Appel Original Art Silkscreen Kool Luke Guitar Indigo Hands
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Karel Appel WALKING IN COLORS Original Art
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Karel Appel (The Face of Appel) – cloth bound book – 1977
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Karel Appel 1979 Framed Lithograph Signed Limited Edition
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Karel Appel 1979 Lithograph Tibetan Bird Signed Limited Edition
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