CategoriesStyles and Movements
CoBrA
Short-lived post-war group of Danish, Belgian and Dutch artists and poets who pursued spontaneous, colourful, creature-filled painting.
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About
In November 1948 a handful of artists and writers met in a Paris café and signed a short statement breaking with the Surrealist establishment. Asger Jorn came from Denmark; Karel Appel, Constant and Corneille from Amsterdam's Experimental Group; the poet Christian Dotremont from Brussels. Dotremont made the group's name from the first letters of their home cities.
They wanted art as direct as a child's drawing or a folk carving, free of polished technique. Look for thick, bright paint applied fast, creatures with staring eyes, and words and images mixed on one sheet, since painters and poets often worked together. Appel's mural Questioning Children (1949) for Amsterdam City Hall drew such hostility that it was covered over for years. Pierre Alechinsky joined in 1949. The group dissolved in 1951, but Jorn went on to help found the Situationist International, and Constant developed his visionary city, New Babylon.