Appel, Karel

Painter and printmaker of Dutch origin, Karel Appel was born in Amsterdam in 1927. He founded in 1948, with Alechinsky, Jorn, Constant Corneille and other North European artists the CoBrA Group, (Co for Copenhagen, Br for Brussels and A for Amsterdam) bringing together artists of Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands, creating a group “Nordic” in opposition to the cultural dominant role of Paris at the time. CoBrA, against realism and pure abstraction was designed to promote technical spontaneity and freedom of expression in painting.

Appel died in Zurich in 2006 after a long and successful career. He is the author of a large and impressive corpus of paintings and fine art prints.