Appel rotzooide niet maar wat aan

Ten years after his death, Karel Appel turns out to be more timeless than you would think with only Cobra in mind. This can be seen at a large and impressive retrospective at the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. It showcases the oeuvre of a highly versatile artist who continued to develop into an old age. An impression of the exhibition under construction.

Drawings

Besides paintings, the exhibition features sculptures and drawings. The drawings show that Appel did not work nearly as impulsively as he wanted to pretend ('I just mess around'). There are preliminary studies of several paintings.

Left: Untitled (1997), right Japanese Landscape no. 1 (Sag zum Abschied leise Servus) (1997)

Diversity: sculpture

Over half a century passes between Elephant head (1948) and The unwanted dynamic jump into the horse's soundless space (2000). The latter is on the hall highlighting Appel as, yes, a philosopher.

Diversity: nudes and portraits

Other themed rooms show how vastly different Appel painted nudes, portraits and landscapes over the years.

Cobra

And yes. As much as you want to highlight all these other sides, you can't avoid Cobra.

Paint

One of the attendants recalls the previous major Apple exhibition at the Gemeentemuseum in 1990. She had just come to work there. 'The whole museum was full of huge new pieces, the paint was still wet. Several visitors touched the canvases to leave a fingerprint in one of Appel's works.'

The head of security comes and angrily tells me that I am not allowed to publish that anecdote. The Marketing/Communications department thinks so: 'As long as it is clear that visitors are not allowed to touch the paintings!' (photo: Visage-Paysage no.9, 1977, photographed at an angle to make the thick layer of paint clearly visible)

Wheel: break in style, theme solidity

The exhibition's image carrier, Burning Child with Hope (1961), is hung in place.

A break in style, seen in one of the cabinets: around 1980, Appel decided to take a completely different tack, inspired in part by Vincent Van Gogh. No flaming child, but in Landscape with wheel (1980) does return the hoop motif.

Children's art book

The Gemeentemuseum was one of the first museums to publish children's art books and the collection is now quite large. Latest volume: tongue twister Karel Appel from the barbershop on Dapperstraat by Imme Dros and Harrie Geelen. The original illustrations hang in the museum café.