Lot 21 : Karel Appel (b. 1921)
Auction Location: United Kingdom - 2002
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Description:
Le petit gar‡on signed and dated 'K. Appel 52'(lower right); titled 'Le petit gar‡on Zurich' (on the stretcher) oil on canvas 39 x 283/4in. (100 x 73cm.) Painted in Zurich 1952 PROVENANCE Arthur Tooth & Sons Ltd, London. The Eleanor S. and John Shoenberg Collection, St Louis. Their sale, Christie's London, 25 June 1997, lot 17. Acquired from the above by the present owner. LITERATURE M. Ragon, Karel Appel Peinture 1937-1957, Paris 1988, no. 815 (illustrated in colour p. 521). NOTES "Sometimes my work looks very childish, or child-like, schizophrenic or stupid, you know. But that was a good thing for me. Because for me, the material is the paint itself. In the mass of paint, I find my imagination and go to paint it." ( Karel Appel : a recorded interview with Alan Hanlon, New York, 1972.) Executed in 1952 Le Petit Garcon (The Little Boy) belongs to a period in Appel's art when the artist was preoccupied with the material of paint as an almost alchemical medium of transmutation and as a tool to redefine reality. "I paint from matter, he said, "because it seems that matter has the same possibilities as the mind, is richer if possible. It is an unpredictable energy, which can be transformed endlessly through contrasts and mixing. The achievement can be made inconceivable and conceivable. Every definition of an object, expression, work of art is an attack on reality." (cited in Karel Appel. Alfred Frankenstein. New York. p.60.) Forming the image of a small boy, the paint in this painting becomes the subject matter of the work, being a material and expressive record of Appel's vigorous and spontaneous interaction. The image of the child - at one time consciously used by the artist as a symbol of hope and as powerfully expressive force - is now of secondary importance, being subordinated to the materials of creation. Indeed, the image has actually arisen from Appel's spontaneous and intuitive reaction to the material quality of the paint. "An artist cannot be calculating," Appel asserted, "he has to paint to relieve himself of human emotions, borne by the universal forces of life. Then one does not think of making up art, of styles or directions. Something is created, something happens. We human beings use matter between birth and death. Matter is to be used, not to posess....What counts for me is impulse, energy, speed action. That's when the really unexpected things happen; the true expressive image that rises undefineably out of the mass of matter, speed and colour." (cited in Karel Appel ed. Theresa Brakeley. Abrams.1980.p.49 and p. 164.) SALESROOM NOTICE Please note that the work is titled titled 'Le petit gar‡on Zurich' (on the stretcher).
