Karel Appel, Dutch painter, sculptor and poet, was born in Amsterdam and started painting at the age of fourteen. Appel had his first show in Groningen in 1946, his early works were deeply influenced by Picasso, Matisse and Dubuffet. Across a nearly six-decade career, Appel established a distinct aesthetic that made him one of the most influential Dutch artists of the latter half of the twentieth century. A founding figure of CoBrA in 1948, a movement that rejected rationalism and geometric abstraction, Appel experimented widely across painting, sculpture, drawing, and stage design, distinguishing himself for his astonishing capacity to innovate.