Appel, Karel (redirected from Karel Appel)

Appel, Karel (kä`rəl äp`əl), 1921–2006, Dutch painter. A member of CoBrA, the European group of the late 1940s to early 1950s allied with abstract expressionism, Appel reacted against the austerity of such earlier Dutch abstraction as that of de Stijl . Characterized by informal brush work, bright, bold color, and a slashing line, Appel's paintings often possess a primal, childlike quality. Later in life Appel turned to creating figurative sculpture. Examples of his work are in the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, Boymans-Van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam, and other collections.

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Appel, Karel

(born April 25, 1921, Amsterdam, Neth.—died May 3, 2006, Zürich, Switz.) Dutch painter, sculptor, and graphic artist. He attended Amsterdam's Royal Academy of Fine Arts (1940–43) and was cofounder (1948) of the COBRA (Copenhagen, Brussels, and Amsterdam) group of northern European Expressionists. In 1950 he moved to Paris; by the 1960s he had settled in New York City, and he later lived in Italy and Switzerland. An exponent of expressive abstraction, he developed a painting style characterized by thick layering of pigment, violent colour and brushwork, and crude, reductive figures. His figurative sculptures were executed in metal and wood. He painted portraits of jazz musicians and a number of public works, including a mural in the Paris UNESCO building.