This exquisite lithograph by Karel Appel (1921–2006), titled Sans titre (Untitled), from the album XXe Siecle, Nouvelle serie, XXIII Annee, No. 17, Noel 1961, originates from the 1961 edition published by Societe Internationale dArt XXe Siecle, Paris, under the direction of Gualtieri di San Lazzaro, editeur, Paris, and printed by Mourlot Freres, Paris, 1961. This work reflects Appels raw, instinctive, and vibrantly expressive visual language at the height of his postwar artistic transformation.
Executed as a lithograph on velin paper, this work measures 12.5 x 9.75 inches. Unsigned and unnumbered as issued. The edition exemplifies the superb craftsmanship of Mourlot Freres, Paris
Artwork Details:
Artist: Karel Appel (1921–2006)
Title: Sans titre (Untitled)
Medium: Lithograph on velin paper
Dimensions: 12.5 x 9.75 inches (31.75 x 24.77 cm)
Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered as issued
Date: 1961
Publisher: Societe Internationale dArt XXe Siecle, Paris, under the direction of Gualtieri di San Lazzaro, editeur, Paris
Printer: Mourlot Freres, Paris
Condition: Well preserved, consistent with age and medium
Provenance: From the album XXe Siecle, Nouvelle serie, XXIII Annee, No. 17, Noel 1961, published by Societe Internationale dArt XXe Siecle, Paris; printed by Mourlot Freres, Paris, 1961
About the Publication:
Gualtieri di San Lazzaros XXe Siecle (Twentieth Century) was one of the most influential art journals of the modern era, founded in Paris in 1938 as a platform for the greatest painters, sculptors, and writers of the 20th century. San Lazzaro, a visionary editor, critic, and champion of modernism, believed that art and literature should coexist as expressions of a shared human imagination. Under his direction, XXe Siecle became a cultural bridge between Europe and the wider world, publishing special issues devoted to leading figures such as Picasso, Matisse, Chagall, Braque, Calder, Miro, Kandinsky, and Leger. Each edition combined essays by renowned critics and poets with original lithographs and woodcuts printed by the foremost ateliers of Paris, Milan, and New York, including Mourlot, Curwen, and Amilcare Pizzi, creating a uniquely rich dialogue between text and image. The 1960 issue, XXe Siecle, Nouvelle serie, No. 14, showcased Daphnis et Chloe, one of Chagalls most celebrated lithographic subjects, coinciding with his work on the monumental suite of lithographs inspired by the same pastoral tale, published by Teriade. Through this publication, San Lazzaro further cemented Chagalls reputation as the modern poet of color and love, uniting myth, nature, and emotion in visual form. Today, XXe Siecle remains an essential record of 20th century modernism, celebrated for its seamless integration of fine art, literature, and design.
About the Artist:
Karel Appel (1921–2006) was a Dutch painter, sculptor, and avant garde visionary whose explosive color, instinctive gesture, and raw material energy made him one of the most influential European artists of the postwar era, forging a bold and unmistakable visual language that drew on the breakthroughs of Pablo Picasso, Alexander Calder, Alberto Giacometti, Salvador Dali, Joan Miro, Wassily Kandinsky, Marcel Duchamp, and Man Ray while radically expanding the expressive potential of painting and sculpture. Born in Amsterdam and educated at the Rijksakademie, Appel emerged as a cultural force when he co founded the CoBrA movement in 1948 alongside Asger Jorn, Corneille, Constant, and Pierre Alechinsky, a revolutionary group that rejected academic restraint in favor of improvisation, primal mark making, unfiltered emotion, and the spontaneous imagination of children and the untutored an approach that challenged the dominance of geometric abstraction and reshaped the trajectory of postwar Modernism. His signature impasto surfaces, violently animated textures, and vibrant, often totemic biomorphic figures carried echoes of Picassos late expressionism, Miros joyful surrealist automatism, Calders playful sculptural dynamism, and Kandinskys color driven spirituality, while the existential tension found in Giacometti and the conceptual provocations of Duchamp informed his broader artistic philosophy. Over the decades, Appel became a towering figure on the international stage, forging close relationships with contemporaries such as Jean Dubuffet, Willem de Kooning, Sam Francis, Joan Mitchell, and Jackson Pollock, and exerting a powerful influence on later generations including the Neo Expressionists and contemporary painters like Georg Baselitz, Jean Michel Basquiat, Julian Schnabel, Eddie Martinez, and todays gestural abstractionists who embraced emotional urgency, physicality, and psychological immediacy in their work. His paintings, sculptures, and works on paper have been collected and exhibited by the worlds leading museums, including MoMA, the Guggenheim, Tate, Centre Pompidou, the Stedelijk Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, reflecting his global importance and the enduring vitality of his aesthetic vision. The highest auction record for Karel Appel was achieved on November 16, 2021, when Woman with Ostrich sold for 4,678,500 USD at Sothebys New York.
Karel Appel XXe Siecle 1961, Karel Appel lithograph, Appel Sans titre.
