Karel Appel - Fraaie zwart-wit lithografie uit REFLEX nr. 1 - 1948 - Sold

• Karel APPEL (Amsterdam 1921 - Zurich 2006)

Karel Appel started his career as an artist, the son of a hairdresser, in Amsterdam, where during the war years, much against his father's wishes, he studied at the Rijksacademie in Amsterdam.
Karel Appel became friends with Corneille and Constant during his years at the academy. A friendship that would last a very long time and was decisive for his further development. In the beginning Appel worked expressionistically and was strongly influenced by people like Picasso and Matisse, a few years after the war he founded the experimental group together with Corneille, Wolvecamp and Constant, among others, and his work is becoming increasingly autonomous.
In 1948, the members of the experimental group joined forces with artists from Denmark and Belgium and founded the now very well-known CoBrA group. CoBrA stands for Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam. The CoBrA group has been very influential in Dutch post-war art and enjoys great international fame.
The real international breakthrough for Karel Appel came when he started working across the border himself, in New York and later in France. He gets his first solo exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in 1968 and many exhibitions abroad follow.
Karel Appel can be counted as one of the most important artists of the Netherlands in modern art history.