Sculpture International Rotterdam

The Sculpture

Karel Appel’s untitled glass and concrete frieze is sited above the entrance to the Hofpleintheater. The informal work stands in stark contrast to the impersonal architectural style of the large academic complex – the Technikon – of which the Hofpleintheater is a part. Appel’s forms are playful and whimsical and his colours bright and contrasting.

The work’s form and content correspond to Appel’s paintings of the period. The elongated plane is divided by the playful lines of the concrete relief. The composition appears abstract and organic, but figures are suggested by bulging eyes and mouths. The contours of the concrete relief are filled with sheets of coloured glass. The use of colour also corresponds with Appel’s paintings of the period. He had left behind his 1950s style with its emphasis on the material nature of the paint and had developed a new working method in which he juxtaposed smooth and even patches of colour, thus emphasising the intensity of the colours.

From the outside it is the concrete play of lines that attracts one’s attention, inside one is overwhelmed by the illuminated coloured glass.

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