Karel Appel

Sale: Christie's, London December 1977, lot 217
Sale: Christie's, New York May 1979, lot 85
Private collection, Israel
Private collection, The Netherlands, acquired from the above 

This work is in mint 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."

Technically, Karel Appel is the legitimate heir to northern Expressionism. The powerful drive of his masses as they roll across the canvas like some storm, the sinuous line that binds the forms into a wrenching unity, the impasto surfaces, the colours that rage in every painting like a war in heaven, all are his birthright. His treatment of light and his construction of space are indebted to Die Brücke.

Yet his conception of painted space has altered since his first visit to the United States in 1957. His forms, though tightly contained within the peripheries of the frame, have broadened into panoramic sweeps of colour.

In the present work Maternity (Moederschap) a gash of cadmium red cuts through a mother-of-pearl white veined with sediments of colour. Something violent is clearly going on. It's not an explosion, rather a tearing apart, full of streaks and flashes. The controlled mesh of tightly-knit brushstrokes, inspired by Van Gogh's technique of hatched strokes, reaches its ultimate expression. But Karel Appel goes one step further than Van Gogh: he turns nature into his own image. And the image is that of a barbarian. There is a restless energy in Karel Appel's painting, a desire to express the vitality of the human soul, a way of preserving the freshness of life in the faces of mother and child. Seeing is for Karel Appel an essential key to the soul. In order to live fully the eye must remain 'alert like a radar' (interview with Frederick de Towarnicki, Paris 1977, published in Alfred Frankenstein, Karel Appel, New York 1980, p.158), sensitive not only to the surface but to what lies beyond the surface. Karel Appel believes that the movement of thought and feeling can be perceived and translated through dynamic forms of expression.