Amsterdam, 1921 – Zurich, 2006

Karel Appel was born in Amsterdam on April 25th, 1921. In 1946 his first solo exhibition was held at Het Beerenhuis, Groningen, and he participated in a group show dedicated to emergent artists at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. In this period, Appel was influenced at first by Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, and later by Jean Dubuffet. Mermber of the Nederlandse Experimentele Groep since 1948, on the same year he established the CoBra group together with Costant, Corneille and other painters from Copenhagen, Brussels, and Amsterdam.

His style has distinguished itself through bold expressive compositions inspired by the art of children, as well as by the work of Paul Klee and Joan Miró. In 1950 the artist moved to Paris; there the writer Hugo Claus introduces him to the art critic Michel Tapié, who has organized several exhibitions on his work. He was invited to hold a solo exhibition at the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, in 1953 and received the UNESCO Prize at the Venice Biennale the following year.

Main solo exhibitions include Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (1982); Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Turin, (1987); National Museum of Art, Osaka (1989); Stedelijk Museum (1968, 1998, 2000, and 2001); Cobra Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Amstelveen, Holland (2001).
Appel died on May 3rd, 2006 in Zurich.

© Karel Appel Foundation