Cobra. A Pictorial and Poetic Revolution

With French as its working language, Cobra was pretty much the last truly European movement within Modernism. The group’s anarchic story is not just an important strand in art history – it remains as lively as ever and has inspired all sorts of artists who were never directly involved with Cobra. The work bequeathed to us by Karel Appel, Pierre Alechinsky, Constant, Corneille and other kindred spirits is as fascinating as ever, both raw and confronting, poetic and moving.
It is with the same spirit of artistic joyfulness and freedom that this book showcases the masterpieces of Cobra art belonging to The Phoebus Foundation.

With text contributions by Paul Huvenne, Johan Pas, Hilde de Bruijn, Laura Stamps, Piet Thomas, Piet Boyens and Naomi Meulemans. The preface was written by Karine Huts-Van den Heuvel.

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.