FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 17, 2016
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THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION ACCEPTS FIRST GIFTS OF WORK
BY RENOWNED DUTCH ARTIST KAREL APPEL
The acquisition of seven paintings and sculptures will be on view as part of
Karel Appel: A Gesture of Color, a concise survey of the artist’s work.
WASHINGTON—The Phillips Collection’s Director Dorothy
Kosinski announced today a gift of seven extraordinary works—
five paintings and two sculptures—by Karel Appel (1921–2006),
given by the Karel Appel Foundation in Amsterdam. Greatly
enriching the museum’s growing collection of postwar European
art, these remarkable works are given in conjunction with Karel
Appel: A Gesture of Color (Paintings and Sculptures, 1947–2004),
a concise survey of the artist’s work, on view at the Phillips June
18–September 18, 2016.
Karel Appel is perhaps the most renowned Dutch artist of the
latter half of the 20th century and one of founding members of
the Cobra group. This acquisition spans 50 years of the artist’s
career. The five paintings, including Red Signs (1948), Woman
with Flowers No. 1 (1963), and Landscape with Wheel (1980)
illustrate the thickly applied radiant primary colors and fiercely
figurative content that defined Cobra, the last avant-garde
movement of the 20th century founded by Appel and his
Karel Appel, Woman with Flowers No.1, 1963.
Plastic flowers and oil on canvas, 45 x 35 in.
contemporaries: Dutch artists Corneille and Constant Anton
Gift of the Karel Appel Foundation, 2016.
Nieuwenhuys (known as Constant), Belgian painter and poet
The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
Christian Dotremont, Danish artist Asger Jorn, and Belgian
painter and poet Joseph Noiret. The brightly painted bronze sculpture The Elephant (1950, cast in 1989)
stands more than eight feet tall and will be exhibited in front of the museum. This exceptional unit of
works is the first by Appel to enter the Phillips’s permanent collection.
“I am incredibly thankful to Harriet Appel and the Karel Appel Foundation in Amsterdam for this
generous gift to the Phillips,” says Director Kosinski. “These paintings and sculptures introduce the work
of a major 20th-century master to the museum’s collection—resonating with the powerful color and
gesture of our holdings by Bonnard, Picasso, and van Gogh while the astonishing improvisational quality
of Appel’s later works finds kindred spirits in Alfonso Ossorio’s aggregations.”
Page 2—Karel Appel: A Gesture of Color
“Karel Appel made his international debut in the United States
in the 1950s with support from the then director of the
Guggenheim Museum James Johnson Sweeney and from
Martha Jackson—the artist’s New York gallerist for more than
17 years—allowing him to bridge his career between Europe
and America,” says the Karel Appel Foundation. “We are proud
to give this gift of works to The Phillips Collection, as it is fitting
that Appel’s work should have a strong presence in the postwar
European art holdings of such a world-famous institution.”
Featuring 22 paintings and sculptures, A Gesture of
Color provides a fresh look at an oeuvre that goes beyond the
1950s, spanning more than 60 years. The exhibition revisits
Appel’s early interest in children’s art, his stylistic
experiments, and his highly personal—and sometimes almost
abstract—interpretation of traditional subjects like the nude,
the portrait, and the urban or rural landscape. A Gesture of
Color is a part of a wider international reappraisal of Appel’s
work, which includes exhibitions in The Hague, Paris, and
Munich.
Karel Appel, The Elephant, 1950, cast in 1989.
Painted bronze, 104 x 76 x 68 7/8 in.
Gift of the Karel Appel Foundation, 2016.
The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
“Throughout a nearly six-decade career, Appel endlessly experimented with the notion of matièrecouleur (matter color)—freely varying styles, methods, and materials, from his exuberant expressions of
color and brushwork to his late “theatrical sculptural fantasies” that combine Italian carnival props,
plastic flowers, and other found objects,” says Deputy Director for Curatorial and Academic Affairs Klaus
Ottmann.
ABOUT THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION
The Phillips Collection, America’s first museum of Modern art, is one of the world’s most distinguished
collections of Impressionist and Modern American and European art. Stressing the continuity between
art of the past and present, it offers a strikingly original and experimental approach to Modern art by
combining works of different nationalities and periods in displays that change frequently. The setting is
similarly unconventional, featuring small rooms, a domestic scale, and a personal atmosphere. Artists
represented in the collection include Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Vincent van Gogh, Edgar Degas, Henri
Matisse, Pierre Bonnard, Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee, Claude Monet, Honoré Daumier,
Georgia O’Keeffe, Arthur Dove, Mark Rothko, Milton Avery, Jacob Lawrence, and Richard Diebenkorn,
among others. The permanent collection has grown to include more than 1,000 photographs, many by
American photographers Berenice Abbott, Esther Bubley, and Bruce Davidson, and works by
contemporary artists such as Anselm Kiefer, Wolfgang Laib, Whitfield Lovell, and Leo Villareal. The
Phillips Collection regularly organizes acclaimed special exhibitions, many of which travel internationally.
The Intersections series features projects by contemporary artists responding to art and spaces in the
museum. The Phillips also produces award-winning education programs for K–12 teachers and students,
as well as for adults. The University of Maryland Center for Art and Knowledge at The Phillips Collection
is the museum’s nexus for academic work, scholarly exchange, and interdisciplinary collaborations. Since
1941, the museum has hosted Sunday Concerts in its wood-paneled Music Room. The Phillips Collection
is a private, non-government museum, supported primarily by donations.
ABOUT THE KAREL APPEL FOUNDATION
The Karel Appel Foundation was established in 1999 in Amsterdam on the artist’s initiative. It represents
his artistic legacy, owns his copyright, collects information, and encourages research and exhibitions in
order to develop new expertise on the work of Karel Appel.