Karel Appel

Galerie Max Hetzler, London presents Karel Appel’s (1921-2006) solo exhibition, Paris/New York, which explores two tenets of the artist’s practice that emerge out of his early years spent in the two cities: the nude figure and action painting.

This exhibition traces Appel’s exploration of the nude from the 1950s to the 2000s. In parallel, a monumental painting made for Documenta III (1964) will be on view for the first time since, alongside other works from this period. This will be the first dedicated Appel exhibition in the UK in nearly four decades and the inaugural exhibition of our expanded gallery space at 41 Dover Street in London.

A founding figure of CoBrA (1948-1951), Karel Appel began his career in the aftermath of the Second World War. Over the course of six decades, the artist experimented widely. Distinguishing himself for his astonishing capacity to innovate; Appel never settled on a signature style, media or subject. Going beyond his classical, academic training at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, the artist looked at folk art, children’s art and outsider art, whilst also drawing from jazz’s spirit of improvisation. Alternating between abstraction and figuration, Appel adopted a material-oriented approach and promoted free expression.