Karel Appel

Esther Robles Gallery, Los Angeles
Sale: Sotheby's, London, Post-War and Contemporary Art, 30 November 1989, Lot 667
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the overall tonality is brighter and more vibrant, and the white pigment is slightly warmer in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. There is light wear to all four corners, and intermittently along all four extreme edges. On close inspection there are a number of fine, isolated, hairline cracks scattered in places throughout with some associated loss to the thick line of black pigment towards the centre of the top right hand quadrant and towards the centre of the left side edge. There are a few further minor losses to a small number of the impasto peaks throughout. No restoration is apparent when examined under ultra-violet light.
"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."

Karel Appel's Sur la Plage from 1959 is a formidable example of the artist's vividly expressive and wildly vivacious style, lauded by many to be the hallmark of the innovative and influential post-war European art movement known as CoBrA.

While the avant-garde movement CoBrA existed formally for only three years, from 1948 - 1951, as one of its founding members, Appel continued to enact the core tenants of the group for many years after its official disbandment. With expressive spontaneity, Appel undertook his creative urges without preconceived plan.  His canvases exploded in a riot of colour, texture and drama, confronting, challenging and usurping the rigid insistence on geometry that de Stijl was enforcing on the Dutch artistic landscape and the domination of the French art scene by Surrealism apparent at the time.

The passionate freedom and fluidity of Appel's works has often been quoted as an influence on the American Abstract Expressionists. However, as in the present work, his paintings always remained, to some degree representational. In Sur la Plage we watch as the canvas bears witness to its own sublimation by the monstrous blackened form that casts its dynamic shadow across the highly worked and textured surface. Distinctive of Appel, the pigment has been thickly smeared, pressed and scraped across the canvas by brush, pallet knife and hand, his physical being and fantastical vision merged and transposed through his painterly action. The inclusion of such a bestial form allies the interests if the artist more closely with his European contemporizes such as Jean Debuffet and Asger Jorn; their fascination with folklore, mythology and prehistory and the inspiration they drew from Outsider art. In this context, his work can be viewed as an expression of humanities communality and cross-era conjunction, far from the idiosyncratic, historically isolated and nihilistic filter through which the Abstract Expressionists are most often discussed.