Stalking Cat, Karel Appel, Dutch, 1921-2006, color lithograph, Gift of Howard Weissman, 1979. 10.1.11.
“Painting, like passion, is an emotion full of truth and rings a living sound, like the roar coming from the lion’s breast.” -Karel Appel
Appel’s Stalking Cat more realistically might purr rather than roar like a lion, but Stalking Cat‘s broad brush strokes and high intensity color bellows none the less. Although trained in the European academic style of painting, Karel Appel preferred to work with figurative abstraction influenced by folk and children’s art. This bold rejection of more traditional aesthetic style rang a chord to many after WWII. However, many rejected it as well as Appel had strong ties to the counter-culture and Beatnik movements. Appel gained more appreciation when he began to showcase his work internationally and gained extreme popularity in the Americas.