KAREL APPEL | L'Homme de la Terre

Arthur Tooth & Sons, London
Private Collection, United Kingdom (acquired from the above circa 1955)
Thence by descent to the present owner

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the white is slightly warmer in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. Extremely close inspection reveals some minute specks of loss in isolated places to the extreme edges, only visible when examined our of its frame. Very close inspection reveals some drying cracks in isolated places, most notably to the areas of thicker impasto and some compressed impasto peaks. 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."

Extraordinarily intense and vibrant, Karel Appel’s L'Homme de la Terre (Man of the Earth), hovers exquisitely between abstraction and figuration. Executed in 1955, the present work was created during a pivotal stylistic moment in the artist’s career; Appel had just departed from the CoBrA group, which he had helped to found, and embarked on a painterly journey into the heart of the tempestuously expressive. Finding affinities with the New York school of Abstract Expressionists, Appel’s new direction was dictated by gestural freedom, spontaneous action and an emotional response to colour. Held in the same family collection since its acquisition directly from the artist, L'Homme de la Terre (Man of the Earth) is a joyful frenzy of vitality and sculpted layers of paint. The present work was purchased by painter and collector David Carr, who developed a friendship with Appel shortly thereafter. Together they would frequent galleries in Paris and London, and Carr often dined with Appel at his home in Montparnasse. The two maintained a long and warm correspondence. As both an artist and a collector, Carr was well-established in the London art scene and became close to many of the artists whose works he purchased and loved. In L'Homme de la Terre (Man of the Earth) a background of richly tactile black accentuates luminous smears of crimson, yellow spirals, and drips of orange. The dense, impastoed layers of paint, often applied in an eruption straight out of the tube and onto the canvas, alludes to the passioned rhythms produced by the great musicians Appel so admired: Charles Mingus, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis.

Appel’s impressive paintings from the mid- to late-1950s are often classified as the artist’s informal period, during which his works became significantly more abstract and theatrical than the earlier CoBrA canvases. The present work allows for an open-ended interpretation, in part because Appel never completely conceded to abstraction, but rather remained forever invested in figurative sources. Further, the painting marks the artist’s complete and untroubled engagement with materiality; the powerful graphic gestures in the dimensional and undulating surface captures an essential ebullience of form, making L'Homme de la Terre (Man of the Earth) one of Appel’s most phenomenal works of this period.



This work is registered in the archive of the Karel Appel Foundation.