Hess Fine Auctions - Antique Trader

Original Karel Appel CoBra Carved Wood Relief Painting Christiaan

Lot-16056-Orig-Karel-Appel-CoBra-Carved-Wood-Relief-Painting

Christiaan Karel Appel was born 25 April 1921, in Amsterdam, Netherlands where he studied art at Rijsksakademe. He was a founding member of the CoBrA movement, a collective of artists inspired by primitive works of Joan Miro and Paul Klee during the Nazi occupation of Europe in World War II. The movement was named by Christian Dotremont in 1948 from the initials of the capitals cities of each member’s home country, Copenhagen (Co), Brussels (Br), Amsterdam (A). Appel’s work was a combination of sculpting and painting, while also doing larger installations and murals.

Edith Hoffman wrote of the CoBrA Exhibition in Rotterdam for The Burlington Magazine in 1966 noting the following, “One of the new approaches that united the CoBrA artists was their unrestrained use of strong colors, along with violent handwritings and figuration which can be either frightening or humorous. Their art was alive with subhuman figures to mirror the terror and weakness of our time unlike the dehumanized art of Abstraction.” The piece featured in Hess’ latest auction is quite indicative of that assessment

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Saturday December 11, 2021 11:00 AM CST | St. Petersburg, FL