3 - Karel Appel (Dutch, 1921-2006)

Karel Appel (Dutch, 1921-2006) Composition - 1963 Acrylic and collage on paper, 67 x 103 cm Signed and dated lower right Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist through Roger Matthys (c.1966) The Robert and Suzanne Pannier Collection, Bruges Executed in 1963, Composition dates from a period in which colour and gesture had become the principal vehicles of Karel Appel's pictorial language. Broad passages of saturated blue and red are animated by vivid yellow accents and black contours. The composition derives its coherence from the dynamic interplay of these elements rather than from recognisable imagery. Beneath its apparent spontaneity lies a carefully sustained pictorial balance in which gesture and colour remain closely interdependent. Rather than opposing expressive freedom to compositional order, Appel allows the two to develop simultaneously, giving the work its characteristic vitality. Acquired directly from the artist around 1966, the work entered the collection of Robert and Suzanne Pannier through their longstanding friendship with Roger Matthys. Having met while studying medicine at the University of Ghent, the two collectors remained close throughout their lives, united by a shared commitment to contemporary art. As a co-founder of the Friends of the Museum for Contemporary Art in Ghent, Matthys maintained close ties with many of the leading artists of his generation, and it was through him that the Panniers acquired the present work directly from the artist.