Karel Appel

Estate of Rose Shwayder, Lakewood
Sale Christie's New York, 13 May 1998, lot 216
Drouot, Paris, 5 December 1998, lot 98
Sale Christie's New York, 17 May 2001, lot 113
Private Collection, Geneva
Sale Sotheby's Amsterdam, 27 May 2002, lot 178
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Colours: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the red is slightly darker and the blue is tending more towards ocean blue, with more colour variations in the white. Condition: This work is in very good condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

When Karel Appel painted his Heads in Grasse in 1959, the important feature was the movement of the landscape itself: "....ik ontdekte de ruimte, daarna de leegte, de lege ruimte waar ik dynamisch de verf in bewoog, de actie in de ruimte (menselijke landschappen). Ik werkte vanuit het natte wit als ruimte-achtergrond, de onaffe ruimte die ik leerde kennen in New York waar men afbreekt en opbouwt. In deze tussenperiode leeft de mens..."
("...I discovered space, then emptiness, the empty space in which I dynamically moved the paint around, the action in this/the space (human landscapes). I worked from the wet white as a  background to the space, the unfinished space I encountered in New York, where people demolish and construct. In this interval, man lives..")

As Hugo Claus graphically put it: "A gash of cadmium red cuts through the mother-of-pearly white veined with sediments of colour and right away something violent is going on. It's not an explosion, rather a slow tearing apart. There's a shapeless mass full of steaks and flashes, a many headed immobile monstrosity that would like to break into a winged flight but can only spread out in folds that whirl and swirl around and turn into roots and branches. Sometimes you get the impression of a sea with loose figures hanging in tentacular seaweed. Very seldom is there anything you can really grasp. (...) Appel went one step further than Van Gogh: he turned nature into his own image. And the image is that of a barbarian. (...) Appel painted landscapes that contain the explosive violence of the days that Michel Tapie called Appel's 'un art autre'."

Appel has now gone beyond the tragic. His red no longer symbolizes the blood and aggression that went with the fight for freedom, it speaks of the fullness of a life lived in freedom.