Karel Appel

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Christiaan Karel Appel was born on 25 April 1921^[1] in his parents' house at Dapperstraat 7 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. As a child he was called "Kik". On the ground floor, his father, Jan Appel, had a barber shop. His mother, born Johanna Chevalier, was a descendant of French Huguenots. Karel Appel had three brothers.^[2]

At fourteen, Appel produced his first real painting on canvas, a still life of a fruit basket. For his fifteenth birthday, his wealthy uncle Karel Chevalier gave him a paint set and an easel. An avid amateur painter himself, Chevalier gave his namesake some lessons in painting.^[3]

Career[edit]

Appel studied at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam during the German Occupation from 1940 to 1943 and it was there he met the young painter Corneille and, some years later, Constant; they became close friends for years. His parents opposed his choice to become an artist, leading him to leave home; this was also necessary because he needed to hide from the German police so that he would not be picked up and sent to Germany to work in the weapon industry. Appel had his first show in Groningen in 1946. In 1949 he participated with the other CoBrA artists in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; this generated a huge scandal and many objections in the press and public. He was influenced by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and the French brute-art artist Jean Dubuffet. In 1947 he started sculpting with all kinds of used materials (in the technique of assemblage) and painted them in bright colors: white, red, yellow, blue and black. He joined the Experimentele Groep in Holland together with the young Dutch painters Anton Rooskens, Theo Wolvecamp and Jan Nieuwenhuys. Later the Belgian writer Hugo Claus joined the group.

In 1948 Appel joined CoBrA (from:Copenhagen, Bruxelles, Amsterdam) together with the Dutch artists Corneille, Constant and Jan Nieuwenhuys (see also Aart Kemink) and with the Belgian poet Christian Dotremont. The new art of the CoBrA-group was not popular in the Netherlands, but it found a warm and broad welcome in Denmark. By 1939, Danish artists had already started to make spontaneous art and one of their sources of inspiration was Danish andNordic mythology. It was also in Denmark that the CoBrA artists started cooperating by collectively painting the insides of houses, which encouraged and intensified the exchange of the typical 'childish' and spontaneous picture language used by the CoBrA group. Appel used this very intensively; his 1949 fresco 'Questioning Children' in Amsterdam City Hall caused controversy and was covered up for ten years.

As a result of this controversy and other negative Dutch reactions to CoBrA, Appel moved to Paris in 1950 and developed his international reputation by travelling to Mexico, the USA, Yugoslavia and Brazil. He is particularly noted^{[by whom?]} for his mural work and lived in New York and Florence. After 1990 he became much more popular in the Netherlands; he had several big shows in Amsterdam and in Bruxelles, organized by director Rudy Fuchs. Also the CoBrA-museum in Amstelveen organized several shows with his work. He became the most famous Dutch artist of CoBrA.

Death[edit]

Sculpture by Karel Appel in The Hague

Appel died on 3 May 2006 in his home in Zürich, Switzerland. He suffered from a heart ailment.^[4] He was buried on 16 May 2006 at the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, France.^[5]

Years before his death, Appel established the Karel Appel Foundation, whose purpose is "to preserve [Appel's] artworks, to promote public awareness and knowledge of Karel Appel's oeuvre and to supervise publication of the Oeuvre Catalogue of the paintings, the works on paper and the sculptures.".^[6]

In 2002 a number of Appel's works went missing on the way to his foundation, an event that was not to be resolved before his death. However in 2012 the works were found in a disused UK warehouse and returned to the foundation. ^[7]

In the wake of his death, the Foundation (based in Amsterdam) functions as his official estate in addition to its primary service as an image archive. The U.S. copyright representative for the Karel Appel Foundation is the Artists Rights Society^[8]

Karel Appel nasce ad Amsterdam nel 1921.

Studia alla Rijksakademie di Amsterdam.
Si interessa d'apprima alla pittura francese moderna. Successivamente si muove alla ricerca di nuove modalità espressive.

Nel 1948 dà vita con Constant e Corneille al gruppo "Reflex".
Sempre nel 1948, a Parigi, Karel Appel fonda "COBRA" con Constant, Corneille, Asger Jorn e Pierre Alechinsky. Il gruppo, che raccoglie artisti provenienti da Copenhagen, Bruxelles e Amsterdam, propone una rilettura dell'espressionismo in chiave informale e ironica, in netto contrasto col rigore e l'ordine di correnti razionaliste come De Stijl.
Nel 1950 Appel si trasferisce a Parigi. Qui conosce il critico Michel Tapié. Partecipa così a manifestazioni come Art Autre e Salon de Mai.
Nel 1953 espone al Palais des Beaux-Arts di Bruxelles.
Nell'estate del 1954 è ad Albisola, dove si impratichisce con la tecnica della ceramica. Nel 1955 espone allo Stedelijk Museum di Amsterdam, nel 1957 all'Institute of Contemporary Art di Londra. Lo stesso anno realizza le vetrate della della Paaskerke a Zaandam.
Nel 1959 Karel Appel vince il Premio Internazionale per la Pittura alla Biennale di Saõ Paulo. L'anno successivo vince quello della Guggenheim International Exhibition.
Nel 1961 espone presso i musei di Basilea, Eindhoven, L'Aia, San Francisco e Phoenix. Contemporaneamente viene presentato il film La réalité de Karel Appel, diretto da Jan Frijman con musiche di Dizzy Gillespie.

Nel 1964 Appel acquista il castello di Molesmes, nei pressi di Auxerre. Dopo i restauri, divene la sua residenza e sede di atelier per altri artisti.
Nel 1968 gli viene conferito il titolo di "Chevalier de lordre d'Orange-Nassau".
Nel 1972 vende il castello di Molesmes e trascorre parte dell'anno a Parigi e parte a New York.
Anche le sue opere girano per il mondo: Svezia, Germania, Francia, Canada, Messico, Spagna, Islanda, Giappone. Nel 1976, a Lima, dipinge alcuni grandi affreschi con l'aiuto della popolazione.
Nel 1977 lascia lo studio di Parigi e si stabilisce nel Sud della Francia South of France.
Negli anni seguenti Appel realizza cicli di dipinti, incisioni, ceramiche e sculture dipinte.
Nel 1982 collabora con Jose Arquelles e Allen Ginsberg nella realizzazione di un ciclo di dipinti e poemi visivi. Assieme verranno presentati in occasione della mostra dedicata a Jack Kerouac a Boulder, Colorado. Nel 1987 a Parigi viene messo in scena il lavoro teatrale-coreografico Peut-on danser le paysage", su sceneggiatura e scenografia di Appel.

Nel 1988 Appel compie un lungo viaggio attraverso la Cina. L'anno successiva realizza un murale a Hiroshima assieme a vari bambini della città.
Nel 1991 realizza una nuova serie di poemi-dipinti con Allen Ginsberg e Gregory Corso. Inizia anche un nuovo ciclo di sculture di impronta costruttivo-espressionista.
Nel 1994, su commissione dell'Opera Olandese, realizza l'impianto scenico dell'opera Noach, di Dutch Guus Janssen. Comincia a trascorrere lungo tempo in Toscana.
Nel 1995 dipinge una serie di paesaggi di Toscana. Realizza anche l'allestimento scenico del Flauto Magico di Mozart per l'Opera Olandese.
Negli anni seguenti, Appel divide gran parte del suo tempo tra la Toscana e gli Stati Uniti, realizzando quadri e sculture.

Karel Appel muore a Zurigo il 3 maggio 2006.