The Song of the Inner Voice. Karel Appel's Serial Versatility

Karel Appel who in the 1950s himself said ‘I just mess around', is now generally acclaimed as one of the genuine innovators of modern painting. His controversial breakthrough came in 1949 when he was seen as one of the leading lights of the CoBrA group. The Dutch artist who freed himself of 2,000 years of Europe fifty years ago now emerges as a painter belonging entirely within a Western tradition, even a tradition with strong European roots. It is, however, a tradition which he himself has helped to shape.