Karel Appel's Fiery Paintings at Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris

The Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris presents a major retrospective of Karel Appel, one of the foremost Dutch artists of the 20th century, running until August 20. Curated by Choghakate Kazarian, the exhibition showcases Appel's vibrant, gestural paintings that blend action painting with expressionist energy. Born in Amsterdam in 1921, Appel co-founded the Cobra group in 1949 alongside Asger Jorn and Pierre Alechinsky. The show features his "Carnet d'art psychopathologique" (1948-50), where he overlaid his drawings and gouaches on works by mental patients, along with paintings, ceramic sculptures from 1950, large installations from the 1970s and 1990s, and late experiments before his death in 2006. Appel's work is characterized by dramatic impulse, ironic accents, convulsive abstraction, and synthetic figuration with childlike innocence and neurotic undertones.