Pastel on very fine wove paper. Hand-signed by the artist.

An exuberant figure erupts from the paper in a riot of vivid pastel strokes, embodying the primal creative energy that made Karel Appel one of the most celebrated members of the CoBrA movement. Working directly in pastel on very fine wove paper, Appel builds his figure through instinctive overlays of saturated colour — fiery reds, electric blues, acid yellows — that seem to vibrate against one another with childlike abandon and painterly sophistication in equal measure. The spontaneity of the medium is ideally suited to Appel's lifelong insistence that art should come from the gut, not the intellect. Hand-signed by the artist, this 1998 drawing demonstrates that even in his late career, Appel's expressive force remained undiminished.