User:Msikma/Karel Appel translation



Karel Appel (born Christiaan Karel Appel, Amsterdam, April 25, 1921 – Zürich, May 3, 2006) was a Dutch painter and sculptor of modern art, who lived during the second half of the twenty-first century and can be counted as expressionist painter.

He mostly became known as member of the artistic group COBRA.

Early life
Christiaan Karel Appel was born at the Dapperstraat in Amsterdam, at the center of a true working-class district. As a child, he was nicknamed Kik. His father was the son of a milkman and had his own barber shop, which was the prime meeting place of the area.

1940–1945: World War II
Ever since he was a child, Appel knew that he wanted to be a painter, but his dad meant for him to work at the family's barber shop. He worked there for several years, but in 1942 went on to join the Rijksacademie van Beeldende Kunsten ("State Academy of Fine Arts") in Amsterdam, afterall. Unhappy with this choice, his parents moved him out of their house for him to live on his own.

Appel did this education until 1944, learning much about art history and traditional drawing and painting techniques. To make the study possible, he received a state-funded scholarship from the Departement van Volksvoorlichting en Kunsten ("Department of People's Guidance and Arts"), for which he frequently had contact with Eduart Gerdses, whom he often asked extra support, but hardly ever got.

Appel has often been reproached for going to the academy during the German occupation, while the Germans had a very repressive policy against the so-called degenerate art in their own country, and mostly against Jewish artists in the Netherlands. Appel himself said he never cooperated with the Germans, even though he did want a scholarship, and only went to the academy to learn how to paint well. It would appear that, due to the heavy criticism of society he would show in his later work, and his remarkable painting ability, this explanation seems acceptable. Other artists, however, were less tolerant and, for example, decided to not become a member of the Nederlandsche Kultuurkamer ("Dutch Culture Chamber"), meaning they had to do without an income.

During his years at the academy, Appel met Guillaume Cornelis van Beverloo. Sometime later, he also met Constant Nieuwenhuys. An intense friendship between the three arose which would last for many years. With Constant, Appel traveled to Luik and Paris after the war, exhibiting their work together.

At the start of the 1944 famine, Appel fleed from his house, afraid of being captured by the Germans due to his refusal to go work in Germany. During the winter, he rambled through the Netherlands, heading towards his brother who lived in Hengelo. He barely had a chance to paint during that time, despite making a few important paintings of the thinning Dutch population.

After the war, the weakened Appel returned to Amsterdam, where he had a short relationship with Truusje, who soon after died of tuberculose. There were few who recognized the potential of Appel at that time. Exceptions were the art critic H. Klinkenberg, who wrote a positive article about Appel, and the rick art collector from Luik, Ernest van Zuylen, who bought art from Appel every year.