#2 • Karel Appel: Framed 1976 Signed Untitled Lithograph #83/125

Part of Fine Art and Jewelry Extravaganza: Bid on Masterpieces by Vasarely, Erte, Picasso, Max, and More! (timed auction by Lux Auctions)

High bid $650.00

Status: No sale

Category: Art

This untitled lithograph is by Dutch painter, sculptor, and poet Karel Appel (1921-2006). The piece is signed in pencil by the artist, dated 1976, and numbered 83/125. An abstract face with a hat is represented in bold saturated colors - a gold background, blue eye, cardinal red hat, and a rich palette including kelly green, orange, deep indigo, cornflower blue, purple and black. it is matted with a single white mat and framed in a simple gold metal frame. There is a wire to hang by in back. Very good condition - art lies flat, some fine scratches to the frame. Please see our photos for additional details. Dimensions: Frame - 27" w x 34.5" tall, Art Opening 21" w x 28.5" tall. About the artist: Karel Appel, (born April 25, 1921, Amsterdam, Netherlands—died May 3, 2006, Zurich, Switzerland), was a Dutch painter of turbulent, colorful, and semi-abstract compositions and was a cofounder (1948) of the COBRA group of northern European Expressionists. He was also a noted sculptor and graphic artist. Appel attended the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Amsterdam (1940–43), and helped found the “Reflex” group, which became known as COBRA (for Copenhagen, Brussels, and Amsterdam), in 1948. He moved to Paris in 1950 and by the 1960s had settled in New York City; he later lived in Italy and Switzerland. Partly in reaction against what they perceived as the sterile academicism of the de Stjil movement, the COBRA artists assimilated a variety of more-impulsive influences, including folk art, children’s art, and l’art brut (“raw art”) of Jean DuBuffet. They exploited the spontaneity and intensity of the contemporary American Action painting while maintaining a degree of representation. Appel’s style is characterized by thick layering of pigment, violent brushwork, and a crude, reductive figuration.