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Untitled (A Boy and His Dog) by Karel Appel

Artwork by Karel Appel, Untitled (A Boy and His Dog)

Karel Appel
Untitled (A Boy and His Dog)

acrylic on canvas
signed lower right
32 x 25.25 in ( 81.3 x 64.1 cm )

Auction Estimate: $40,000.00$30,000.00 - $40,000.00

Price Realized $42,000.00
Sale date: May 21st 2024

Provenance:
The Art Emporium, Vancouver
Private Collection, Montreal
Originally hailing from Amsterdam, Karel Appel was inspired by the work of Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and later Jean Dubuffet. Appel began painting at the age of fourteen. The artist was a member of the Nederlandse Experimentele Groep and established the CoBrA Group with fellow painters including Constant Nieuwenhuys and Guillaume Cornelis Beverloo. The movement gained notoriety for its forceful, expressive compositions informed by folk and children’s artwork. The work of Joan Miro and Paul Klee also served as inspiration.

The artist’s first solo exhibition was held at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels in 1953. Appel’s work was renowned internationally and featured in many group and solo exhibitions at esteemed museums and galleries worldwide including the Tate, MoMA and many others. Appel remains the most renowned Dutch artist of the 20th century with a career that spanned over 60 years.

“Untitled (A Boy and his Dog)” features all the hallmarks of Appel’s work. The dense layers of colourful pigment are applied in bold brushstrokes. The semiabstract composition retains the crude quality reminiscent of children’s drawings. The subject matter is a traditional portrait of a boy and his dog, but the treatment is wholly experimental and animalistic. The picture presents painting in its purest and idealistic form.

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Karel Appel
(1921 - 2006)

HighlightsWatch Artist

Born on April 25, 1921, in Amsterdam, Karel Appel studied at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten and, in 1946, held his first solo show at Het Beerenhuis, Groningen, and participated in Jonge Schilders (Young painters) at the Stedelijk Museum.

Appel drew primarily inspiration from the artists Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Jean Dubuffet. In 1948, he was a member of the Nederlandse Experimentele Groep (Dutch Experimental Group) before establishing the avant-garde movement CoBrA, with Constant Nieuwenhuys, Corneille (Guillaume Cornelis Beverloo), and other painters from Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam. Their unique style challenged abstraction and Surrealism, featuring bold, expressive compositions inspired by children’s doodles and folk art.

Following the group’s disbanding in 1951, Appel travelled extensively and pursued his career between Paris and New York. In 1954, he held his first gallery exhibition in the United States, and the following year, one of his paintings was included in the seminal group exhibition The New Decade at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, displaying his work alongside those by Francis Bacon, Pierre Soulages and Jean Dubuffet. Over time, his practice expanded to include sculpture, screen printing, stained glass and poetry, which continued until his death in Zürich on May 3, 2006.

Today, Appel’s works can be found in various major museums, including the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova in Turku, Finland, and The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C.