Karel Appel was born in Amsterdam in 1921 and became known as a highly significant post-war Dutch painter. He studied at the Amsterdam Academy from 1940 - 43, during which period one of the artists who most significantly influenced his work was Dubuffet. As a result of his interest in Dubuffet’s work, Appel attempted to capture the simplified spirit of children’s drawings in his paintings. His first one-man show was in 1946 at Het Beerenhuis in Groningen.

In 1948 Appel became one of the founder member’s of the Cobra group alongside Asger Jorn and Corneille. The group came under the larger movement of ‘Art Informel’, of which Appel was considered to be a leading painter. This movement emerged in the 1940s and paralleled the American Abstract Expressionists in style and has also been called ‘Art Autre’ (other). Abstraction was not the emphasis, rather it was the turbulent use of paint which gave the art its signature style.

In 1949 Appel organised an exhibition of international avent-guard artists at Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum. At the same time, he was exhibiting his own work in Paris and Northern Europe. By 1950 Appel had settled in Paris where critic Michael Tapie became one of his greatest and most influential supporters.

Appel was known for the vigorous nature of his paintings. Strong colours where the paint is applied with energy and the thick abstract brushwork suggests characters, faces and masks amidst the energy of the paint.

Appel won a string of accolades including the 1954 UNESCO price at the Venice Biennale, the international painting prize at the Sao Paulo Bienal in 1959 and the Guggenheim international award in 1960.

Karel Appel: Painter, Hugo Claus, Amsterdam 1965.
Karel Appel, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam 1965
Karel Appel, Martha Jackson Gallery, New York 1967.