COBRA: Before, During, and After Works
from
the Collection of Stephane Janssen
| Traveling Exhibition Arizona State University Art Museum at the Nelson Fine Arts Center February 8 through May 11, 2003 |
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| Karel Appel
The Arizona State University Art Museum will tour a major exhibition of the radical post-war European art movement CoBrA. The3 exhibition includes 105 paintings, sculpture, drawings, and ceramics by fifteen artists including Pierre Alechinsky, Karel Appel, and Asger Jorn. CoBrA is an acronym of Copenhagen, Brussels, and Amsterdam, cities from which many of the original artists came. The exhibition reflects the artists’ response to the historic moment, when Europe was grappling with the horrors of war, humiliation, and of loss. The exhibition shows the artists taking advantage of collapsed traditions as an opportunity to forge a new visual language in the climate of austerity and reconstruction. Wildly expressive, the work is informed by the art of children, the mentally ill, and a reaction against conventions. The intelligence of animals, the vanity of language, and the power of myth flow through this work. The group, which existed under the name CoBrA for a mere three years--- 1948-51--- attracted the young, discontented and defiant artists of the time who broke with elitist art traditions to address a universal public. They discarded technique, painting and drawing spontaneously. The range of the work spans from horror to humor, anger and depression to exuberance. Curator:
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Download a printable PDF version For more information contact John Spiak at spiak@asu.edu. |
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