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Email to FriendSigned Karel Appel, Lithograph, Personnages, 1973  |
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| Artist: | Appel, Karel (1921 - 2006) |
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| Title: | Personnages, 1973 |
| Medium: | Original color lithograph |
| Image Size: | 26 in x 20 1/2 in (66 cm x 52.1 cm) |
| Sheet Size: | 30 3/4 in x 24 1/4 in (78.1 cm x 61.6 cm) |
| Framed Size: | 42 1/2 in x 37 1/4 in (108 cm x 94.6 cm) |
| Signed: | Hand-signed and dated by Karel Appel (Amsterdam, 1921 - Zürich, 2006) 'Appel 1973' in pencil in the lower right margin. |
| Edition: | Numbered 74/120 (from the edition of 120) in pencil in the lower left margin. |
| Condition: | This work is in excellent condition offering bright vibrant colors. |
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Gallery Price
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Item# 3423
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| MFA SALE | $3,500 |
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Brilliantly colored and heavily textured, this work reveals Appel's inclination towards Dutch expressionism from which he creates a distinct stylization through the abandonment of formal structuring. Whimsical in nature, the exuberant application of color captures a quality of spontaneity and experimentation. |
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| Historical Description: | |
Dating from 1973, this original color lithograph is hand-signed and dated by Karel Appel (Amsterdam, 1921 - Zürich, 2006) 'Appel 1973' in pencil in the lower right margin and numbered 74/120 (from the edition of 120) in pencil in the lower left margin. In this striking work Appel adeptly juxtaposes contrasting colors increasing their intensity, creating a vital representation of different personages, or characters. The viewer can make out multiple colored figures that appear as if bursting forth from the blue background. They resemble both humans and animals, but are given a sense of character by their circular eyes and expressive mouths. The viewer cannot pinpoint the exact identity of these figures, but rather searches this somewhat abstract work to find his or her own characters in the midst of Appel's colorful lines and patches. About Appel and the Cobra Movement: Cobra. A group of Expressionist painters formed in Paris in 1948 by a number of Netherlandish and Scandinavian artists. The name derived from the first letters of the capital cities of the three countries of the artists involved - Copenhagen, Brussels, Amsterdam. The aim of the Cobra artists was to give free expression to the unconscious, unimpeded and undirected by the intellect. In their emphasis on spontaneous gesture, they had affinities with the American Action Painters, but they differed in their strand and fantastic imagery, related in some instances to Nordic mythology and folklore, in others to various magical or mystical symbols of the unconscious. (Oxford Dictionary of 20th Century Art, 1998, pg. 129)
ABOUT THE FRAMING: | |
| Style: | COBRA Contemporary and 20th Century Modern Master |
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Biography of Karel Appel
Dutch painter, born in Amsterdam. Karel Appel studied at the academy in Amsterdam and had his first show in Groningen, 1946. His early work was influenced by Picasso, Matisse, and Dubuffet. In 1948, with Corneille and Constant, he founded the experimental group and magazine Reflex, which soon thereafter merged with the Cobra movement. It was in Paris, where he had an exhibition in 1949 and took up residence in 1950, that Appel truly mastered his creative powers. He worked freely with color, which he applied in thick blotches as a reaction against the geometric Academicism inherited from neoplasticism, and his subject matter was both broad-ranging and powerful.
A trip to the United States in 1957, where he was introduced to Action Painting, ushered in a new period for Appel, as his work became more dynamic: Two Heads in a Landscape, 1968. He also created polychrome sculptures, stained-glass windows, and mural paintings.
