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Lot Essay
In 1955, Karel Appel collaborated with the Belgian poet and playwright Emmanuel Looten on a pamphlet called Cogne ciel. Appel had been introduced to Looten by his friend the art critic Michel Tapié. In some sense, this was a perfect pairing, as Looten's writing had some equivalency with Appel's art. Indeed, as well as collaborating on Cogne ciel, Looten wrote prefaces for several Appel exhibition catalogues, and a poem, Appel, Appel.
Executed in 1955, Le poème du Cogne ciel appears to be a tribute to the collaboration on the pamphlet, which is referred to in the picture as a 'chant farouche', a savage song. The figure at the top of the work is holding a piece of paper with the heading Cogne ciel, evidently a copy of the pamphlet itself. He is spewing the word 'bon' again and again, Appel modestly portraying a reader evidently intoxicated by the quality of the publication! At the bottom, a figure confronts the viewer, seemingly gesticulating, seemingly pointing out the effects of Cogne ciel to the viewer. However, it should also be noted that Cogne ciel was the title of one of Looten's poems - hence Appel may be showing the poet in the course of declaiming his verse to the world. Le poème de Cogne ciel is both a playful tribute to the friends' collaboration in publishing their pamphlet, and to their friendship itself. Indeed, the figure at the bottom, near the signature, could be the artist waving to his friend.
Le poème de Cogne ciel perfectly distills the intoxicating essence of Appel's work. Where in his oils, the artist's physical exertion is plain to see in the violent textures, in his works on paper his enthusiasm is plain to see in the stabbing delineations. His use of coloured crayons necessarily equates his work with that of the children who inspired his style. In this medium he perfectly captures the unvarnished honesty of a child's vision. The layout appears illogical, and yet is wholly related to the unschooled art of a child. In fact, in some sense the vertical layout lends this work a strange poetry, an exultant rhythm, as the viewer's eye is led in leaps and bounds by text and image from top to bottom, from dedication to signature.
Executed in 1955, Le poème du Cogne ciel appears to be a tribute to the collaboration on the pamphlet, which is referred to in the picture as a 'chant farouche', a savage song. The figure at the top of the work is holding a piece of paper with the heading Cogne ciel, evidently a copy of the pamphlet itself. He is spewing the word 'bon' again and again, Appel modestly portraying a reader evidently intoxicated by the quality of the publication! At the bottom, a figure confronts the viewer, seemingly gesticulating, seemingly pointing out the effects of Cogne ciel to the viewer. However, it should also be noted that Cogne ciel was the title of one of Looten's poems - hence Appel may be showing the poet in the course of declaiming his verse to the world. Le poème de Cogne ciel is both a playful tribute to the friends' collaboration in publishing their pamphlet, and to their friendship itself. Indeed, the figure at the bottom, near the signature, could be the artist waving to his friend.
Le poème de Cogne ciel perfectly distills the intoxicating essence of Appel's work. Where in his oils, the artist's physical exertion is plain to see in the violent textures, in his works on paper his enthusiasm is plain to see in the stabbing delineations. His use of coloured crayons necessarily equates his work with that of the children who inspired his style. In this medium he perfectly captures the unvarnished honesty of a child's vision. The layout appears illogical, and yet is wholly related to the unschooled art of a child. In fact, in some sense the vertical layout lends this work a strange poetry, an exultant rhythm, as the viewer's eye is led in leaps and bounds by text and image from top to bottom, from dedication to signature.