Oiseau de L'Aube (Dawn Bird)

Karel Appel (1921 – 2006, Dutch) “Oiseau de L’Aube” (Dawn Bird or Bird of Breaking Day) (1959) Original lithograph in 9 colors, signed in pencil at the bottom right and dated ‘appel 59’ and in the lower left is the publisher's dry stamp: L'Oeuvre Gravée and the written Artist’s Proof notation: ‘Epreuve d’Artiste s/Japon’. The image measures 21.5 x 30 inches. [Note: This image was published in an edition of 120 numbered copies ‘Farblithografie auf Johannot-Bütten’ (Color lithograph on Johannot-Butten paper.)]

Karel Appel was an expressionist Dutch painter. He was a member of the famous COBRA (Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam), the European group of the late 1940s to early 1950s, which promoted spontaneous expressionism and abstract features in painting. Appel's paintings incorporate applications of vibrant, violent colors often possessing a primal, childlike quality or a schizophrenic innocence.