CoBrA group

COBRA was a short-lived but influential avant-garde movement in Europe, active from 1948 to 1951. The name COBRA was coined by Christian Dotremont in 1948, using the initials of the home cities of its members: Copenhagen, Brussels, and Amsterdam.

The COBRA movement was founded by a group of artists who were dissatisfied with the rigid constraints of conventional art and sought to explore new forms of expression. They embraced spontaneity, intuition, and experimentation, rejecting traditional techniques and seeking to break down the boundaries between art and everyday life.

The COBRA artists worked in a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, and printmaking, and their work was characterized by bold, expressive brushstrokes, vivid colors, and a childlike, naive style. They drew inspiration from sources as diverse as folk art, primitive art, and the work of the Surrealists, and their art often had a political or social message.

Despite its short lifespan, the COBRA movement had a significant impact on the development of modern art in Europe. Its members included such notable artists as Karel Appel, Asger Jorn, and Pierre Alechinsky, who went on to become major figures in the European art scene. Today, COBRA is remembered as a bold and influential movement that paved the way for the development of other avant-garde art movements in the years to come.