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Lot Essay
In 1949 it was decided by the council of Rotterdam that a special harbour exhibition should be organised the following year. This exhibition, called Ahoy, was to be the first major manifestation in the city after the devastations of the war. Its purpose was to have 'the whole world' witness 'the indestructible Rotterdam spirit' and to profile itself as an active harbour city (see:Evenementen in Rotterdam, Vol. X, Rotterdam 1988, p. 16)
Supervised by the firm of architects Van den Broek and Bakema, enormous halls were erected on an area between the Rochussenstraat and the Westzeedijk, the Westzeedijkpark and the river Maas. The same firm of architects were given the responsibility to recruit a large number of collaborating architects and artists, in order to represent the economical and cultural life of a resurrecting Rotterdam in the interior of the halls. The intention was to give a serious demonstration which at the same time had to be a strong impulse for the recovery of the city, and therefore an artistic and intellectual standard of the highest level was a prerequisite.
The above resulted in a very fruitful and successful collaboration of many creative minds. Next to an important role for the architect Aldo van Eijck, as a direct result of the given theme Ossip Zadkine showed the first design of his later world-famous sculpture Destroyed city, then still called City without a heart. Surprisingly the young and relatively unknown artist Karel Appel was also requested to contribute. He suggested to design and to build up a circa 14 meter high sculpture of a tree of life. With that he wanted to represent the vitality of the city of a Rotterdam in reconstruction.
With Karel Appel of course, this commission ended up in the best possible hands. Or, as Donald Kuspit explains: 'For Appel, the only possible task for art after the tragedy of World War II was to help humanity renew and redeem itself. People had to recover a sense of being vitally human after their demoralization. The terror of total war had to be counteracted by the joy of total freedom and spontaneity, which sublated the aggression of war in libidinous pleasure. (...) "Through a spontaneity that seems to express life at its most passionate, Appel reaffirmed his will to live and to be natural in a society that had become unliveable and unnatural. (...) For Appel, art is a way of throwing off the shackles of such [Nazi] control by free expression. (...) Art kept his spirit alive and free, and it would keep that spirit alive forever'. (D. Kuspit, Karel Appel Sculpture. A catalogue raisonné, New York, 1994, p. 25/26)
The small-scaled three-dimensional sculpture, the present lot Tree of life, was according to the patrons of the commission a very successful reflection of their ideas and was instantly given their consent. Soon after, in 1950, Karel Appel himself produced the fantastic and gigantic sculpture, which towered above everything.
To show his gratitude, the artist presented the present lot Tree of Life to one of the patrons of the commission. It remained in a private collection ever since and was never shown to the public or lend out to an exhibition.
Supervised by the firm of architects Van den Broek and Bakema, enormous halls were erected on an area between the Rochussenstraat and the Westzeedijk, the Westzeedijkpark and the river Maas. The same firm of architects were given the responsibility to recruit a large number of collaborating architects and artists, in order to represent the economical and cultural life of a resurrecting Rotterdam in the interior of the halls. The intention was to give a serious demonstration which at the same time had to be a strong impulse for the recovery of the city, and therefore an artistic and intellectual standard of the highest level was a prerequisite.
The above resulted in a very fruitful and successful collaboration of many creative minds. Next to an important role for the architect Aldo van Eijck, as a direct result of the given theme Ossip Zadkine showed the first design of his later world-famous sculpture Destroyed city, then still called City without a heart. Surprisingly the young and relatively unknown artist Karel Appel was also requested to contribute. He suggested to design and to build up a circa 14 meter high sculpture of a tree of life. With that he wanted to represent the vitality of the city of a Rotterdam in reconstruction.
With Karel Appel of course, this commission ended up in the best possible hands. Or, as Donald Kuspit explains: 'For Appel, the only possible task for art after the tragedy of World War II was to help humanity renew and redeem itself. People had to recover a sense of being vitally human after their demoralization. The terror of total war had to be counteracted by the joy of total freedom and spontaneity, which sublated the aggression of war in libidinous pleasure. (...) "Through a spontaneity that seems to express life at its most passionate, Appel reaffirmed his will to live and to be natural in a society that had become unliveable and unnatural. (...) For Appel, art is a way of throwing off the shackles of such [Nazi] control by free expression. (...) Art kept his spirit alive and free, and it would keep that spirit alive forever'. (D. Kuspit, Karel Appel Sculpture. A catalogue raisonné, New York, 1994, p. 25/26)
The small-scaled three-dimensional sculpture, the present lot Tree of life, was according to the patrons of the commission a very successful reflection of their ideas and was instantly given their consent. Soon after, in 1950, Karel Appel himself produced the fantastic and gigantic sculpture, which towered above everything.
To show his gratitude, the artist presented the present lot Tree of Life to one of the patrons of the commission. It remained in a private collection ever since and was never shown to the public or lend out to an exhibition.