Cobra Museum

Description:

• You have to head out to the dull dormitory suburb of Amstelveen south of Amsterdam to find one of the most exciting museums in the country. Exciting, that is, if you like the Cobra group's post-World War II, abstract-expressionist art. The group took its name from the initials of the original players' home cities: Copenhagen, Brussels, and Amsterdam. Folks like Karel Appel, Asger Jorn, and Lucebert weren't instantly popular in their day, and it's probably still stretching the term to describe them as such today, but they undoubtedly changed the face of art, and here you can see how. Appel (b. 1921) was the Dutchman, a controversial painter, sculptor, and graphic artist who in 1950 co-founded the experimental movement. His work, including Child and Beast II (1951), has a childlike quality, employing bright colors and abstract shapes. He once said, "I paint like a barbarian in a barbarous age." View works by Appel here and at the Stedelijk Museum .

• © Frommer's 2013