In the spring of 2026, London’s art calendar is being shaken by an explosion of color from one of modern art’s most ferocious and vital figures. Galerie Max Hetzler hosts “Variations on a Theme,” a comprehensive retrospective of Karel Appel—co-founder of the legendary CoBrA group—from March 5 to April 16, 2026. This exhibition is not merely a retrospective; it functions as a sharp filter focused on the unsettling theme that runs like a silver thread through Appel’s entire career: the “human-animal” interaction.
To understand Appel’s art is, in fact, to confront modern humanity’s untamed side. The curatorial structure divides the Dover Street gallery space dialectically: the front section covers the traumatic and searching years immediately following World War II; the back section showcases the 1980s and 1990s, when painting returned with the force of a vengeful fire.
At the heart of the exhibition lies the “human-animal” theme—not merely a biological classification, but, for Appel, the very key to pure creativity. As Franz Kaiser has noted, this theme is the hidden force that binds Appel’s entire oeuvre together, beginning with his iconic 1949 work Human Being and Animals.
Front Gallery: From the Ashes of World War II to the Light of Paris
The exhibition opens with the years when Appel rediscovered the world with childlike curiosity. Having hidden in the countryside during the war, upon returning to Amsterdam he drew primary inspiration from Paul Klee’s children’s drawings. The works in the first room pay homage to Klee’s pure, unfiltered world.
A little further along, one can sense the shadow of Picasso and Édouard Pignon. Appel and his friend Corneille’s first trip to Paris in 1947 shaped the genetic code of pieces such as Woman with Bird (1946), which appears in the exhibition. Personnage (1952) reveals how the young Dutch artist’s mind turned Picasso’s blend of Cubism and Surrealism—especially Guernica and the Dora Maar portraits—into a personal storm.
Important Note: The most critical work in this section is the only piece produced during the active years of the CoBrA group (1948–1951): Man and Animals (1950). This painting stands before us as a summary of the group’s wild, rule-defying, and collective spirit.
Back Gallery: The 1980s, 1990s, and Painting’s Triumphant Return
Moving to the rear of the gallery, we encounter Appel’s mature period—shuttling between New York and Europe—with monumental canvases. The 1980s were a time when video and conceptual art rose and people declared “painting is dead”; Appel’s response to those claims was a fierce rebuttal delivered with his brush.
Cattle Slaughter (1981): Observing the streets of New York, Appel transfers to canvas the image of a butcher carrying a slaughtered pig over his shoulder, reuniting the predatory and carnivorous side of urban life with the “human-animal” theme.
Figure with Butterfly (1982): This enormous collage proves that Appel reinterpreted techniques he had used 44 years earlier on a modern and monumental scale.
An Undiscovered Gem: Perhaps the most exciting piece in the exhibition is Woman with Animal no.3 (1996), a work rarely shown before. Produced ten years before Appel’s death, it demonstrates how fresh and inexhaustibly energetic his central theme remained.
Why Now?
It is 2026, and amid the flood of digital images and AI-generated content, Appel’s physical battle with paint reminds us how raw an act being human truly is. While hurling paint onto the canvas like a sword, Appel whispers to us: art is an untamable force of nature.
Karel Appel’s (1921–2006) passionate journey—from Paris to New York, from Tuscany to Amsterdam—unfolds as a visual feast waiting to be discovered at Galerie Max Hetzler’s London branch.
Exhibition Details
Exhibition: Karel Appel – Variations on a Theme
Venue: Galerie Max Hetzler, 41 Dover Street, London
Dates: March 5 – April 16, 2026
