Karel Appel, a gesture of color

Karel Appel (1921–2006) is perhaps the most renowned Dutch artist of the latter half of the twentieth century and one of founding members of the avant-garde Cobra group. Marking the tenth anniversary of the artist’s death, this survey of twenty-two paintings and sculptures provides a fresh look at an oeuvre that goes beyond the 1950s, spanning more than sixty years. A Gesture of Color revisits Appel’s early interest in children’s art, his stylistic experiments, and his highly personal — and sometimes almost abstract — interpretation of traditional subjects like the nude, the portrait, and the urban or rural landscape.