Karel Appel

Appel started painting at a tender age of fourteen, his first work being a still life of a fruit basket. During the German occupation, he studied at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam from 1940-1943. In 1946, Appel had his first show in Groningen. In 1947, Appel joined the Experimentele Groep, along with Anton Rooskens, Jan Nieuwenhuys and Theo Wolvecamp. In 1948, Karel Appel was one of the founding members of the avant-garde movement CoBrA. A year later, in 1949, he participated with other CoBrA artists in a group exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, which generated many objections from the public and the press. Appel was influenced by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Jean Dubuffet and as a result of the controversy Appel moved to Paris in 1950, followed by Mexico, the United States, Brazil and Italy. After 1990, Appel became more popular in Holland and received several major shows, organized by Rudy Fuchs and the CoBrA museum. Appel’s work has been exhibited in a number of renowned galleries worldwide, including the Anita Shapolsky Gallery in New York, Galerie Lelong in Paris, and Galerie Ulysses in Vienna. Karel Appel’s work is held by many public collections, including the Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle, The Netherlands, the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Source: Itaú Cultural