Karel Appel
About the exhibition
The Samuelis Baumgarte Galerie presents the internationally renowned artist Karel Appel in an extensive solo exhibition with 25 works. Karel Appel (1921-2006), co-founder of the famous artist group CoBrA, fascinates the viewer with his multi-layered and imaginative artistic works and is today one of the most important Dutch painters of the 20th century. In a strongly impasto style, Appel brings his emotions with rhythmic brushstrokes, but also directly with a spatula or hands on the canvas and has created an expressive oeuvre with figurative-abstract color landscapes over the decades that has been captivating the international art world since the 1950s.
The opening of the exhibition "Karel Appel" will take place on Thursday, February 13, 2020 at 7 pm with an introduction by Rouven Lotz, Sci. Head of the Emil Schumacher Museum in Hagen. In addition, an extensive color catalog is accompanying the exhibition.
The avant-garde CoBrA group was named after the hometowns (Copenhagen, Brussels, Amsterdam) of the founding members, including Asger Jorn, Karel Appel, Constant and Pierre Corneille. After it was founded in Paris in 1948, it came to an official end in the early 1950s following differences. With the goal of spontaneous abstract painting, represented by CoBrA, Karel Appel achieved great benevolence in international art criticism. Not least because of the French curator Michel Tapié, who classified him as one of the main protagonists of Art autre. His experimental and individualistic works such as People in Landscape, 1989, Acrylic on paper, 65 x 102.9 cm, which were prominently promoted by the New York gallery owner Martha Jackson, Sam Francis and later Richard Lindner, hide one behind their expressive style great complexity due to the networking of art movements from the middle of the 20th century.
Karel Appel's figurative works are located in an area of abstraction, which is located between the style of European Informel (French: without form) on the one hand, but also representational painting on the other. A highlight of the exhibition is Elephant, 1974, Oil on canvas, 76 x 61 cm, which is an impressive work for Appel's individuality. His artistic claim is an expression of an “atmosphere of constant search and experimentation”, as Asger Jorn already put it. This is also reflected in his analytical view of his surroundings.
Appel's often childlike compositions are deliberately chaotic ensembles of multicolored gradients and structures; they are landscapes, figures, but also portraits that lose themselves in dynamic variation. The work Untitled, 1994, Oil on canvas, 50 x 60 cm, allows the subject and background to stand out vigorously through the strong impasto oil paints whose components Appel even mixed himself.
With his energetic oeuvre and in his very own artistic way, Karel Appel pursued a unique avant-garde degree of abstraction in modern art. His expressive experiments and seemingly spontaneous compositions are inspiring perspectives on life, because, according to Appel: "It is a real fight to be awake, to see everything new, for the first time in your life."
From 13 February to 18 April 2020 the exhibition "Karel Appel" will be presented at the Samuelis Baumgarte Galerie.
Opening Hours
Monday - Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Video
Information
Opening: Thursday, 13 February 2020, 7 p.m.
Introduction: Rouven Lotz, Emil Schumacher Museum, Hagen
Press
'Der kindliche Blick auf die Welt', Westfalen-Blatt, 14.02.2020
'Farbexplosion bei Baumgarte', Neue Westfälische, 14.02.2020
'Führung durch Appel-Ausstellung', Westfalenblatt, 14.05.2020
