March Auction
Lot 169:
Karel Appel (Dutch, 1921-2006), Toi et moi, Signed Color Lithograph
Description
Color lithograph depicting an abstracted, dual figural composition rendered in Karel Appel’s bold and expressive postwar style. Executed with vigorous black contours and densely layered fields of saturated blue, yellow, red, white, and green, the composition conveys a dynamic relationship between two interlocking forms. The energetic surface, painterly textures, and spontaneous gestures exemplify Appel’s translation of his expressive painted language into graphic form.
Details
Artist: Karel Appel (Dutch, 1921-2006)
Title: Toi et moi
Medium: Color lithograph on paper
Signature: Signed in pencil Appel, lower right
Date: 1960
Dimensions: 65.5 × 48 cm (sheet size)
Edition: Unnumbered impression
Condition: General handling wear consistent with works on paper; light edge wear and minor surface marks visible. Colors remain strong. Reverse with toning and evidence of prior mounting.
Catalogue Note
This lithograph corresponds to Toi et moi, a color lithograph executed by Karel Appel in 1960 and held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York (accession no. 64310). The MoMA example confirms the composition, date, and medium of this work, situating it firmly within Appel’s mature graphic output of the early 1960s.
A founding member of the CoBrA movement, Appel is renowned for his instinctive, childlike visual language and rejection of academic convention. In Toi et moi, the interrelationship of two figures is conveyed through raw gesture and color rather than literal representation, a hallmark of Appel’s expressive philosophy. The present work is a signed, unnumbered lithographic impression, consistent with the artist’s printmaking practice during this period.
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