I am a disaster when it comes to remembering favorite artists’ names. Even though I get auction results from major houses like Sotheby’s regularly and skim through them to pinpoint the favorable works of art, my brain rejects permanent storage of essential information. So, I decided to make a note of my favorite pieces/artists in the hopes of overcoming the short memory loss.
The most recent pick is Karel Appel from the Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Auction that took place in New York on 22 September 2011. Appel, as I found out, is a Dutch painter who was born in 1921 in Amsterdam and passed away in 2006 in Zurich. This contemporary artist lived his life in between America, France and Japan and was greatly influenced by the American poet Walt Whitman. As it is apparent in Whitman’s works, Appel was moved by individualism and his view grew stronger in the aftermath of World War II. He became the founder of the Cobra Group which celebrated the complete destruction of the past and cherished the survival instinct of the now.
The thing that struck me on Appel’s “Portrait of Mr. K” is the use of color and the detailing of the brush strokes. From afar this piece looks like a casually completed draft, but as you get closer to it you become aware of the math behind each move. The orange, although not a preferred color, brings life and warmth to this abstract portrait and so does the red flower. The thicker brush strokes on the other frame gather the attention on the face: an apparent piece of heavy emotion and subjectivity.
Portrait of Mr. K was sold by Sotheby’s a few days ago for USD 74,500.
[...] Appel’s Virilité. I mentioned before that I really like Karel Appel‘s style and use of color as a painter. Since then I have been keeping an eye on his stuff. [...]