Women Admiring Themselves
Artist
Karel Appel
(Dutch, 1921-2006)
Date1957
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions65 x 74 1/4 in. (165.1 x 188.6 cm)
Overall, Frame: 65 1/2 x 80 1/2 x 2 1/2 in. (166.4 x 204.5 x 6.4 cm)
Overall, Frame: 65 1/2 x 80 1/2 x 2 1/2 in. (166.4 x 204.5 x 6.4 cm)
ClassificationsModern art
Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.
Object number71.795
Terms
- Abstract
- Women
Collections
On View
Not on viewLabel TextKarel Appel Dutch (1921–2006) Women Admiring Themselves, 1957 Oil on canvas Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.795 Karel Appel’s Women Admiring Themselves reflects a fast-paced, spontaneous, gestural brushwork that was meant to circumvent rationalism and unleash the artist’s inner forces. Appel was a member of the European artistic group Cobra (1948–51), which stood for the founding artists’ countries of origin: Copenhagen, Brussels, and Amsterdam. Strongly influenced by Surrealism, Appel and his colleagues, most notably Constant, Asger Jorn and Pierre Alechinsky, sought to surpass its aesthetic methods. The group was interested in releasing the inner emotive force of the artist, but considered Surrealism’s notion of the unconscious too individualistic. In this manner, Cobra was aligned with the New York School’s desire to visually render a collective unconscious that links all members of society. The art of children and the insane were seen to possess a liberated and unrestricted creative strength found in all humanity.
