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Lot Essay
This work is registered in the Archive of the Karel Appel Foundation.
Karel Appel's work during the CoBrA period (1947-1951) conjured strong expressionistic and colourful visions of the inherent vitality and truth of such elementary subjects as animals and children by using raw and powerfully constructed images of them as a kind of iconography of protest. After the demise of the CoBrA movement in which Appel had played a central role in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, the artist had moved to Paris. In Paris, Appel found a mentor in the art critic Michel Tapié (1909-1987) in 1951. From the beginning of their friendship, much of the stress that had marked Appel's earlier work in Paris disappeared as, under the guidance of his friend, he developed his unique iconography and expressive style. In the works we can see the influence of Tapié. We see the great richness of facets of figuration and abstraction.
Tapié not only cultivated the artist's mind, but also supplied him with better materials. The thicker application of paint in Deux personnages also illustrates the sense of childlike naviety that developed from Appel's Paris years, a style that would become to dominate his work for the remainder of his career. Appel's work became much more painterly and expressionistic.
(F. Steininger, 'Karel Appel -Life and Work' in ex. cat. Karel Appel - Retrospective 1945-2005, Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum, Bratislava 2005, pp. 43-45.)
By 1953 Appel's painterly practice had begun to develop in such a way that the immediacy and spontaneity of painting, the pure freedom involved within the unconscious act of painting itself, was becoming all-important for him. He was beginning to realize that the most powerful and surprising expressions of these basic elements were achieved not by premeditation but by a spontaneous and unconscious interaction with the material of paint. 'What counts for me', he has said, 'is impulse, energy, speed action. That's when the really unexpected things happen; the true expressive image that rises undefinably out of the mass of matter, speed and colour.'
(Karel Appel, T. Brakeley (ed.), New York 1980, p. 164.)
Deux personnages was painted in the high point of Karel Appel's career, the year that has been indicated as the International breakthrough for Karel Appel. Appel's Deux personnages reflects, in both subject matter and technique, the dual influence of CoBrA and Art Brut.
In Deux personnages we see two human figures presented in a childish manner, the ultimate CoBrA visual language. But the colours in Deux personnages are more pastel-like and the composition hints to flatter surfaces. Although the figures are outlined with black, as in the CoBrA period, this typical framing has loosened up slightly in this work. Influenced by applying thicker colour masses the composition vaguely reforms.
Karel Appel's work during the CoBrA period (1947-1951) conjured strong expressionistic and colourful visions of the inherent vitality and truth of such elementary subjects as animals and children by using raw and powerfully constructed images of them as a kind of iconography of protest. After the demise of the CoBrA movement in which Appel had played a central role in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, the artist had moved to Paris. In Paris, Appel found a mentor in the art critic Michel Tapié (1909-1987) in 1951. From the beginning of their friendship, much of the stress that had marked Appel's earlier work in Paris disappeared as, under the guidance of his friend, he developed his unique iconography and expressive style. In the works we can see the influence of Tapié. We see the great richness of facets of figuration and abstraction.
Tapié not only cultivated the artist's mind, but also supplied him with better materials. The thicker application of paint in Deux personnages also illustrates the sense of childlike naviety that developed from Appel's Paris years, a style that would become to dominate his work for the remainder of his career. Appel's work became much more painterly and expressionistic.
(F. Steininger, 'Karel Appel -Life and Work' in ex. cat. Karel Appel - Retrospective 1945-2005, Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum, Bratislava 2005, pp. 43-45.)
By 1953 Appel's painterly practice had begun to develop in such a way that the immediacy and spontaneity of painting, the pure freedom involved within the unconscious act of painting itself, was becoming all-important for him. He was beginning to realize that the most powerful and surprising expressions of these basic elements were achieved not by premeditation but by a spontaneous and unconscious interaction with the material of paint. 'What counts for me', he has said, 'is impulse, energy, speed action. That's when the really unexpected things happen; the true expressive image that rises undefinably out of the mass of matter, speed and colour.'
(Karel Appel, T. Brakeley (ed.), New York 1980, p. 164.)
Deux personnages was painted in the high point of Karel Appel's career, the year that has been indicated as the International breakthrough for Karel Appel. Appel's Deux personnages reflects, in both subject matter and technique, the dual influence of CoBrA and Art Brut.
In Deux personnages we see two human figures presented in a childish manner, the ultimate CoBrA visual language. But the colours in Deux personnages are more pastel-like and the composition hints to flatter surfaces. Although the figures are outlined with black, as in the CoBrA period, this typical framing has loosened up slightly in this work. Influenced by applying thicker colour masses the composition vaguely reforms.