Appel, Karel: Aggressive Personality (1967)

In 1948, Karel Appel and his fellow artists formed the CoBrA collective in Paris. Its members considered spontaneity the most authentic way of self-expression and creation, so instead of Western tradition, the artists rather found inspiration in folk art, the object culture of prehistoric eras and the image making practice of children and the mentally ill. Although the CoBrA group dissolved in 1952, its aims continued to have a prevailing influence on Appel’s work. In this image titled Personnage Agressif, he depicts basic instinct, brutality and violence. In his asymmetrical composition placed along a diagonal line, the use of colour (warm and cool, as well as complementary and contrast), the impasto character of the image and the specific application techniques of the paint (applied to the canvas straight from the tube, then finished by fingers, paint brushes and palette knives) all become more significant than recognizable human forms. The glowing, pulsating shape that fills the right half of the image stands opposed to the frail figure „turned upside down” on the left, picturing the way aggression claims possession of both life and space.

László Hemrik