Karel appel lithograph

Karel Appel was a Dutch artist best known as one of the founding members of the avant-garde CoBrA group after World War II. ‘I don’t paint, I hit’, he said of his bold expressive style.

Appel was born in Amsterdam in 1921. The son of a barber, he received a scholarship to study at the city's Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten. Early influences for the artist included Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Jean Dubuffet. He had his first solo exhibition in the Dutch city of Groningen in 1946.

Two years later, Appel and a number of like-minded artists launched the CoBrA movement: so named because its members hailed from Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam. These artists included Christian Dotremont and Asger Jorn, and they took inspiration from the creativity and worldview of children.

They allowed their imagination and paintbrushes to roam free, and the results were artworks of exuberance and spontaneity. In the case of a fresco that Appel was asked to Karel appel prints!