Artist as Poet: Forgotten Angels
Exhibitions & Events
On July 21, 2016, Deputy Director for Curatorial and Academic Affairs Klaus Ottmann shares an overview of Karel Appel: A Gesture of Color. In anticipation, we’re sharing examples of Appel’s poetry paired with his artwork on the blog.
Karel Appel, Nude Figure, 1989. Oil on canvas, 76 x 95 5/8 in. Musée dâArt Moderne de la Ville de Paris © Karel Appel Foundation, c/o ARS New York, 2016
We feel nothing only the light growing we feel that life has forgotten her wings The world has gone from sleepy space to a technological penitentiary with the sound-tape of human rights babbling on through the night one smile, one angel smile might burn the shadows on the roof and let us see the stars like flowers. Karel Appel, “The Forgotten Angels”
Karel Appel, Tree, 1949. Gouache on wood, 38 5/8 x 29 1/2 x 24 3/8 in. Musée dâArt Moderne de la Ville de Paris © Karel Appel Foundation, c/o ARS New York, 2016
A tree is poetic because physicality is in itself poetic, because it is a presence, because it is full of mystery, because it is full of ambiguity, because even a tree is a sign of a chromatic system, Who speaks by way of the tree? Reality itself. Karel Appel (trans. Sam Garrett)
