Cobra: A Pictorial And Poetic Revolution

Karel Appel became acquainted with American Abstract Expressionism with his exhibition at Martha Jackson in New York in 1950, while he was making his most iconic Cobra work at that time. Cobra was thus, after surrealism, the last great European innovator in the development of modernism.” PAUL HUVENNE

On November 8, 1948, Asger Jorn, Christian Dotremont, Joseph Noiret, Constant, Karel Appel and Corneille decided in a Paris café to subscribe to Dotremont’s discourse La cause était entendue. CoBrA, an acronym for Copenhague, Bruxelles and Amsterdam, became the name of their movement. Today, Cobra is considered an important momentum in art history, including internationally. With French as the official language, Cobra was virtually the last authentic European movement within modernism. Then, in the wake of the economy, the cultural hegemony of the United States took over. This book tells the story of the movement through in-depth essays by Paul Huvenne, Han Sizoo, Johan Pas, Hilde De Bruijn, Franz Wilhem Kaiser and Laura Stamps, among others. In addition, dozens of representative works from the top collection of The Phoebus Foundation are on display.