Karel Appel (the Netherlands) Amsterdam, 1921-Zürich, 2006

Appel attended classes at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam (1940–1943), where he met Corneille. During a stay in Paris they became inspired by works of Jean Dubuffet and of people with a mental illness. Back in Amsterdam they befriended Constant. Mid 1948 they founded the Experimental Group in Holland, together with other later Cobra members. Reportedly, Appel often became aggravated during the group meetings by his intellectual colleagues acting the role of revolutionaries. He was more outspoken than most in his rejection of intellectual theories and any external constraints imposed on the artist.