Karel Appel

Obituary

Dutch Artist Karel Appel Dies

LONDON, May 8, 2006—Dutch artist Karel Appel, a founding member of the mid-20th-century CoBrA art movement, has died in Zurich, Switzerland at the age of 85, The Independent reports.

Appel pioneered a style of painting that recalled the drawings of young children. His 1949 canvas Hiep, hiep, hoera!, was a defining work in the movement he helped create in Paris the late 1940’s.

Appel studied at the Royal Fine Arts Academy in Amsterdam in the early 1940’s, but rejected the rigidity of the work of Dutch abstractionists such as Piet Mondrian.

Seeking to invent a new Dutch style Appel founded CoBrA—an acronym derived from the first letters of Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam—together with artists the artists Corneille, Constant and Jan Nieuwenhuys in November 1948. The group of semi-abstract painters was drawn to the themes of insanity and illogic and developed work inspired by folk art and American action painting.

In 2001 Appel was officially recognized for his achievements on the occasion of his 80th birthday. He was presented with the Order of the Lion, the equivalent of knighthood, by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. A large bronze sculpture called Frog with Umbrella was unveiled in The Hague to commemorate the event.