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Dimensions: 96 by 130 cm.
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Provenance: Collection Rudy Kousbroek, Paris/The Hague, acquired directly from the artist, in exchange for a radio and record player
Galerie Nova Spectra, The Hague, 1977
Private Collection, Europe, since 1985
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Exhibited: Zeist, Slot Zeist, Appel toen....Appel nu, July-September 1977
Turnhout, De Warande, Avantgarde Toen "de Vijftiger jaren", April-May 1984, no. 57, illustrated no. 53
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Literature: Peter Berger, Karel Appel, Venlo 1977, no 32, illustrated
Alfred Frankenstein, Karel Appel, New York / Amsterdam 1980, p. 40, illustrated in colour
Michel Ragon, Karel Appel Schilderijen 1937-1957, Paris / Amsterdam 1988, p. 403, no.709, illustrated in colour
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Notes: This work is recorded in the Karel Appel archives under the number X -283
PROPERTY OF AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE EUROPEAN COLLECTOR
In 1950 Karel Appel visited in Paris the exhibition held after the "Congrès International de Psychiatrie". He bought the catalogue and illustrated it spontaneously.
Animals were very important elements in Karel Appel's work of the early fifties. Their seemingly simplicity makes us regard them as clichés, representing the emptiness of the violence in which the stereotype of primitivity becomes clear.
In Slapende Stad the treatment of the material has become rougher than in the works of the preceding years, the touch is self-reliant and one can observe how soon the whirling touches change into a clear pattern before our eyes, their interrelation releases an image, which is analogous to the stationary play of the upcoming. The work is set up in fast and sure strokes, in primary colours and radiates powerful action.
Slapende Stad displays all the CoBrA characteristics and is a magnificent example of a work of the early fifties by Karel Appel.
We kindly thank Mr Jan Nieuwenhuizen Segaar for his contribution to the research of this work
