Karl Appel

Dutch painter, born in Amsterdam.  Appel studied at the academy in Amsterdam and had his first show in Groningen, 1946. His early work was inf… [Read biography »]

Styles of Karl Appel: COBRA Contemporary and 20th Century Modern Master

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Karl Appel biography

Dutch painter, born in Amsterdam.  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.