Bio
The Dutch painter, sculptor and poet Karel Appel was born in Amsterdam in 1921. He was the son of a hairdresser and entered the Royal Academy of Visual Arts, after a raw between him and his father. During the Second World War, while at school Appel met Corneille.
In July 1948 Karel Appel was one of the founders of the Dutch Experimental Group and was involved in November 1948 in the creation of the “Cobra” movement. Appel went on to become leading figure of the Dutch Cobra and later in the entire world .Often he used the term, “I’m just messing about”, which was frowned upon by critics of expressionism, but this summarizes his work quite good, he choose his subject and through creation, he came to a result.
Appel painted in bright colors and simple figures. he created compositions with fictional animals and innocent children. In 1954 Appel, had exposition in Paris and later on in New York. especially New York inspired him, here he developed a very expressive way of painting figurative elements. He developed a larger brush in a fat layer of paint, but kept true to the principals of the Cobra.