In the aftermath of World War II, Europeans struggled to deal with what they had been through. Some people had a pessimistic attitude and questioned their beliefs, their world, and their place in it. They felt that their existence was futile and that they were alone in this world. Many lost their faith in God after witnessing the insanity of the Holocaust and the deployment of the atom bomb.
At the other end of the spectrum were those Europeans who were determined to reinvigorate Europe after the horrors and disillusionment of the war. They were excited by the potential of the post-war world, but also disgusted by the things that they had experienced and continued to see happening around them. Artists of this mindset tended to focus on spontaneity and freedom when producing their art.
SELECTED WORK: Questioning Children by Karel Appel, 1949
Karel Appel—Biography and Career
Christiaan Karel Appel was one of the artists who saw the end of World War II as an opportunity to bring new energy and strength to Europe. At that time, young artists around him were all seeking something new. Appel was a Dutch artist from Amsterdam, but he spent much of his career working around a group of artists from many different European countries. He founded the Dutch Experimental Group for himself and like-minded artists. The energy of this collaboration carried forward when the Dutch Experimental Group was absorbed into CoBrA by the end of 1948. CoBrA was a group of avant-garde European artists who were greatly inspired by “primitive” art, folk arts, and the art of children. The name of the group is often spelled “CoBrA” to highlight the fact that it references the cities from which its founders came—Copenhagen, Brussels, and Amsterdam. Appel was well represented in the first CoBrA exhibit, the International Exhibition of Experimental Art, at the Stedelijk Museum in 1949. The show highlighted his work, along with that of 32 other artists from ten different countries. Even after CoBrA dissolved, Appel’s career continued to thrive. He won a UNESCO prize at the 1954 Venice Biennale for his painting Wild Horses. In 1960, he became the youngest artist to win the Guggenheim International Award for his painting Woman with Ostrich.
Christiaan Karel Appel was one of the artists who saw the end of World War II as an opportunity to bring new energy and strength to Europe. At that time, young artists around him were all seeking something new. Appel was a Dutch artist from Amsterdam, but he spent much of his career working around a group of artists from many different European countries. He founded the Dutch Experimental Group for himself and like-minded artists. The energy of this collaboration carried forward when the Dutch Experimental Group was absorbed into CoBrA by the end of 1948. CoBrA was a group of avant-garde European artists who were greatly inspired by “primitive” art, folk arts, and the art of children. The name of the group is often spelled “CoBrA” to highlight the fact that it references the cities from which its founders came—Copenhagen, Brussels, and Amsterdam. Appel was well represented in the first CoBrA exhibit, the International Exhibition of Experimental Art, at the Stedelijk Museum in 1949. The show highlighted his work, along with that of 32 other artists from ten different countries. Even after CoBrA dissolved, Appel’s career continued to thrive. He won a UNESCO prize at the 1954 Venice Biennale for his painting Wild Horses. In 1960, he became the youngest artist to win the Guggenheim International Award for his painting Woman with Ostrich.
Several years before his death in 2006, he established the Karel Appel Foundation, whose purpose is to “preserve the artworks, to promote public awareness and knowledge of Karel Appel’s oeuvre and to supervise publication of the oeuvre catalogue of the paintings, the works on paper and the sculptures.” Today, the Foundation, along with the many museums around the world that hold and display Appel’s work, help maintain the legacy of this highly significant Dutch artist.
Questioning Children—Analysis
Karel Appel said, “My art is childlike.” There is perhaps no better illustration of that statement than his Questioning Children series. The particular piece we will discuss is one of three painted wood reliefs with this title. Questioning Children is an example of Appel’s sculptural work, which was typically made from found materials. The Questioning Children series is made from materials the artist salvaged from throughout the red-light district of Amsterdam, near his home and studio.
Karel Appel said, “My art is childlike.” There is perhaps no better illustration of that statement than his Questioning Children series. The particular piece we will discuss is one of three painted wood reliefs with this title. Questioning Children is an example of Appel’s sculptural work, which was typically made from found materials. The Questioning Children series is made from materials the artist salvaged from throughout the red-light district of Amsterdam, near his home and studio.
For the work we are examining here, the artist used a number of wooden pieces in a variety of shapes, including roughly square, rectangular, and circular forms, which have been nailed onto a wooden “background.” The background is believed to be an old shutter, possibly dating from the seventeenth century, which Appel scavenged from the house in Amsterdam where he had his studio and where the work was created. The wooden forms give a great degree of dimensionality to the work, as they project off the surface of the background. The work not only projects itself physically through the layers of wood, but also visually bursts off the wall through Appel’s use of intense color. In addition to the bright yellow of the background, we see the other primary colors of red and blue, as well as rich orange, green, white, and black tones, applied in a very gestural way here, with rough brushstrokes and loose forms throughout. Overall, the artist has made great efforts to render a work that appears to have been quite casually created, possibly by a child.
Appel was very clear that the inspiration for this series was his memory of seeing German children begging for food alongside a train. Thus, the images are not playful scenes. Instead, they are concerned with the plight of abandoned and starving children in the wake of the war. Indeed, the work’s Dutch title, Vragende kinderen, may be translated not only as “questioning children” but as “begging children” as well. It is likely that this imagery, particularly enlarged to mural scale and situated in a public space, was too aggressive and disturbing for many viewers. Certainly, an image of street urchins begging for scraps of food would be an unsettling thing to see when sitting down in a municipal cafeteria in Amsterdam in 1949. With Appel’s broader intent for the series in mind, the visual characteristics of our relief sculpture become even more significant. The rough wood and street materials now connect in a powerful, conceptual way to the ragged, destitute children that inspired the series.
Questioning Children is a fascinating work. Its dark content is masked in many ways by the passionate, even joyful style Appel employs. His “childlike” art thus becomes cathartic and hopeful—sentiments that would be critically necessary for restoring Europe in the wake of the horrors of World War II.
SELECTED WORK: Man Pointing by Alberto Giacometti, 1947
Alberto Giacometti—Biography and Career
Alberto Giacometti was born to an Italian Swiss family in 1901 in Switzerland, near the Italian border. Giacometti lived and worked for periods in Switzerland and Paris. He moved to Geneva soon after the Germans entered Paris in 1940. He wanted to return to Paris after its liberation in the summer of 1944, but this was not possible until September 1945. It was after his return, and specifically in the years 1946–47, that Giacometti developed the mature sculptural style for which he is best known today.
Alberto Giacometti was born to an Italian Swiss family in 1901 in Switzerland, near the Italian border. Giacometti lived and worked for periods in Switzerland and Paris. He moved to Geneva soon after the Germans entered Paris in 1940. He wanted to return to Paris after its liberation in the summer of 1944, but this was not possible until September 1945. It was after his return, and specifically in the years 1946–47, that Giacometti developed the mature sculptural style for which he is best known today.
Giacometti was notoriously self-critical. Even after achieving great success and at a time when his work was greatly in demand, he often reworked or even destroyed sculptures in progress. Despite his own criticism, he is well-known as a sculptor, and created many paintings and drawings, particularly portraits of his friends and family. Giacometti continues to be recognized for his artistic achievements. Very recently, the value of his work was established in a different way—a version of his Man Pointing, which we will discuss below, became the most expensive sculpture ever sold at auction. On May 11, 2015, the hedge fund billionaire and major art collector Steve Cohen bought a version of the work for $141.3 million dollars.
Man Pointing—Analysis
This sculpture is one of the most important of Giacometti’s mature sculptural style, which is characterized by attenuated figures and dramatically manipulated surfaces. The visual and conceptual forms of Man Pointing make it perhaps the clearest manifestation of his artistic ideas. Our image illustrates the version of Man Pointing that is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It is one of six casts of the sculpture. Others are held by the Tate Gallery in London, The Baltimore Museum in Maryland, and private collectors such as Steve Cohen. The works are all bronze and measure 701/2 x 403/4 x 163/8 inches.
This sculpture is one of the most important of Giacometti’s mature sculptural style, which is characterized by attenuated figures and dramatically manipulated surfaces. The visual and conceptual forms of Man Pointing make it perhaps the clearest manifestation of his artistic ideas. Our image illustrates the version of Man Pointing that is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It is one of six casts of the sculpture. Others are held by the Tate Gallery in London, The Baltimore Museum in Maryland, and private collectors such as Steve Cohen. The works are all bronze and measure 701/2 x 403/4 x 163/8 inches.
The sculpture depicts a standing figure whose gender is identified by the title alone. The man stands with his feet slightly apart and fixed to a thick, squared base. His arms are raised at his sides. His right hand points away from his body, while his left curves slightly upward. The figure’s head is turned toward the pointing hand, thus emphasizing the directional nature of the sculpture. The body is painfully thin, making the man appear tragically fragile. Instead of an idealized, powerful figure, here we have a skeletal form, so tiny it appears as if seen from a great distance.
An important characteristic of Man Pointing that is typical for Giacometti’s mature sculpture is its highly textured surface. Giacometti’s bronze sculptures were originally made in clay and plaster, and then cast in metal by foundry professionals. In his perfectionism, the artist would often work these plaster and clay “sketches” over and over again, often finding it difficult to bring them to satisfactory resolution. This particular work was made very rapidly for Giacometti’s first exhibition in New York at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in early 1948.
He recalled: I did that piece in one night between midnight and nine the next morning. That is, I’d already done it, but I demolished it and did it all over again because the men from the foundry were coming to take it away. And when they got here, the plaster was still wet.
Man Pointing was originally intended to be part of a larger composition, with the left arm of the man positioned loosely around a second figure. Giacometti later abandoned the idea because, “had it come into being, the viewer would, Giacometti felt, have been faced with a closed dialogue between two figures, whereas he wanted above all to create an immediate link between viewer and figure.” In the end, the artist considered Man Pointing to be a complete work. Today, we see it as a summing up, not just of Giacometti’s artistic project overall, but of the general sensibility of postwar Europe.