CoBrA: The Colour of Freedom

by Karel Appel (Artist), Ludo van Halem (Editor)

The international CoBrA movement of 1948-1951, a European avant-garde embodying post-WWII freedom, has been compared to American Action Painting in both its aesthetic and its effect. The Color of Freedom documents one of the world's largest collections of CoBrA work, some 250 pieces, many recently cleaned, restored and reframed, along with letters, magazines, invitations and other ephemera. This expanded and updated edition celebrates the reopening of the work's current home, the expanded and renovated Stedelijk Museum in the Dutch city of Schiedam. Schiedam's is one of the most comprehensive CoBrA collections in the Netherlands, including works by Karel Appel, EugAne Brands, Constant, Corneille, Jan Nieuwenhuijs, Anton Rooskens and Theo Wolvecamp. This attractive, wide-ranging and colorful overview, with its wealth of illustrations and comprehensive approach, offers an exceptional introduction to and record of CoBrA. For the more specialized reader it also includes a great deal of art-historical information about conservation, restoration and art policy.

Paperback

First published August 15, 2006

About the author

Christiaan Karel Appel (Dutch: [krɪsˈtiaːn ˈkɑrəl ɑpɔl] ( listen)) (25 April 1921 – 3 May 2006) was a Dutch painter, sculptor, and poet. He started painting at the age of fourteen and studied at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam in the 1940s. He was one of the founders of the avant-garde movement Cobra in 1948.