COBRA (or CoBrA) was a European
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretica ...
movement active from 1948 to 1951. The name was coined in 1948 by
Christian Dotremont
Christian Dotremont, (; 12 December 1922 – 20 August 1979), was a Belgian painter and poet who was born in Tervuren, Belgium. He was a founding member of the Revolutionary Surrealist Group (1946) and he also founded COBRA together with Danis ...
from the initials of the members' home countries' capital cities:
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan a ...
(Co),
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
(Br),
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
(A).
History
During the time of occupation of World War II, the Netherlands had been disconnected from the art world beyond its borders. COBRA was formed shortly thereafter. This international movement of artists who worked experimentally evolved from the criticisms of Western society and a common desire to break away from existing art movements, including "detested" naturalism and "sterile"
abstraction
Abstraction in its main sense is a conceptual process wherein general rules and concepts are derived from the usage and classification of specific examples, literal ("real" or " concrete") signifiers, first principles, or other methods.
"An abst ...
. Experimentation was the symbol of an unfettered freedom, which, according to Constant, was ultimately embodied by children and the expressions of children. COBRA was formed by
Karel Appel
Christiaan Karel Appel (; 25 April 1921 – 3 May 2006) was a Dutch painter, sculptor, and poet. He started painting at the age of fourteen and studied at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam in the 1940s. He was one of the founders of the avant-garde ...
,
Constant,
Corneille
Pierre Corneille (; 6 June 1606 – 1 October 1684) was a French tragedian. He is generally considered one of the three great seventeenth-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine.
As a young man, he earned the valuable patrona ...
,
Christian Dotremont
Christian Dotremont, (; 12 December 1922 – 20 August 1979), was a Belgian painter and poet who was born in Tervuren, Belgium. He was a founding member of the Revolutionary Surrealist Group (1946) and he also founded COBRA together with Danis ...
,
Asger Jorn
Asger Oluf Jorn (3 March 1914 – 1 May 1973) was a Danish painter, sculptor, ceramic artist, and author. He was a founding member of the avant-garde movement COBRA and the Situationist International. He was born in Vejrum, in the northwest c ...
, and
Joseph Noiret on 8 November 1948 in the Café Notre-Dame, Paris,
[MOMA onlin]
collections page
/ref> with the signing of a manifesto, "La cause était entendue" ("The Case Was Settled"), drawn up by Dotremont. Formed with a unifying doctrine of complete freedom of colour and form, as well as antipathy towards Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...
, the artists also shared an interest in Marxism
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
as well as modernism.
Their working method was based on spontaneity and experiment, and they drew their inspiration in particular from children’s drawings, from primitive art forms and from the work of Paul Klee
Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented ...
and Joan Miró
Joan Miró i Ferrà ( , , ; 20 April 1893 – 25 December 1983) was a Catalan painter, sculptor and ceramicist born in Barcelona. A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundació Joan Miró, was established in his native city of Barcelona ...
.
Coming together as an amalgamation of the Dutch group Reflex, the Danish group Høst and the Belgian Revolutionary Surrealist Group, the group only lasted a few years but managed to achieve a number of objectives in that time: the periodical ''Cobra'', a series of collaborations between various members called ''Peintures-Mot'' and two large-scale exhibitions. The first of these was held at the Stedelijk Museum
The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. in Amsterdam, November 1949, the other at the Palais des Beaux-Arts
The Centre for Fine Arts (french: Palais des Beaux-Arts, nl, Paleis voor Schone Kunsten) is a multi-purpose cultural venue in Brussels, Belgium. It is often referred to as BOZAR (a homophone of ''Beaux-arts'') in French or PSK in Dutch. The b ...
in Liège
Liège ( , , ; wa, Lîdje ; nl, Luik ; german: Lüttich ) is a major city and municipality of Wallonia and the capital of the Belgian province of Liège.
The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east of Belgium, not far fro ...
in 1951.
The group is notable for having a Black artist member, Ernest Mancoba, who was married to Sonja Ferlov a Danish sculptor who was one of a few active women in the movement.
In November 1949 the group officially changed its name to Internationale des Artistes Expérimentaux with membership having spread across Europe and the United States, although this name has never stuck. The movement was officially disbanded in 1951, but many of its members remained close, with Dotremont in particular continuing collaborations with many of the leading members of the group. The primary focus of the group consisted of semi-abstract paintings with brilliant color, violent brushwork, and distorted human figures inspired by primitive and folk art and similar to American action painting
Action painting, sometimes called "gestural abstraction", is a style of painting in which paint is spontaneously dribbled, splashed or smeared onto the canvas, rather than being carefully applied. The resulting work often emphasizes the physical a ...
. Cobra was a milestone in the development of Tachisme
__NOTOC__
Tachisme (alternative spelling: Tachism, derived from the French word ''tache'', stain) is a French style of abstract painting popular in the 1940s and 1950s. The term is said to have been first used with regards to the movement in 19 ...
and European abstract expressionism
Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...
.
Cobra was perhaps the last avant-garde movement of the twentieth century. According to Nathalie Aubert the group only lasted officially for three years (1948 to 1951). After that period each artist
in the group developed their own individual paths.[Auber, Nathalie. “’Cobra after Cobra’ And The Alba Congress:
From Revolutionary Avant-Garde To Situationist Experiment.” Third Text 20.2
(2006): 259–267. Art Source. Web. 14 Sept. 2015.
]
Manifesto
The manifesto, entitled, "''La cause était entendue''" (The Case Was Settled) was written by CoBrA member Christian Dotremont and signed by all founding members in Paris in 1948. It was directly speaking to their experience attending the Centre International de Documentation sur l’Art d’Avant-garde in which they felt the atmosphere was sterile and authoritarian. It was a statement of working collaboratively in an organic mode of experimentation in order to develop their work separate from the current place of the avant-garde movement. The name of the manifesto was also a play on words from an earlier document signed by Belgian and French Revolutionary Surrealists in July 1947, entitled "La cause est entendue" (The Case Is Settled).
Method
The European artists were different from their American counterparts (the Abstract expressionists
Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...
) for they preferred the process over the product and introduced primitive, mythical, and folkloric elements along with a decorative input from their children [Cooke, Lynne. “Review.” The Burlington Magazine 126, no. 978 (September 1, 1984): 583.] and graffiti
Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...
. One of the new approaches that united the COBRA artists was their unrestrained use of strong colors, along with violent handwritings and figuration which can be either frightening or humorous. Their art was alive with subhuman figures in order to mirror the terror and weakness of our time unlike the dehumanized art of Abstraction
Abstraction in its main sense is a conceptual process wherein general rules and concepts are derived from the usage and classification of specific examples, literal ("real" or " concrete") signifiers, first principles, or other methods.
"An abst ...
. This spontaneous method was a rejection of Renaissance art, specialization, and ‘civilized art’, they preferred ‘uncivilized’ forms of expression which created an interplay between the conscious and the unconscious instead of the Surrealist
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...
interest in the unconscious alone. The childlike in their method meant a pleasure in painting, in the materials, forms, and finally the picture itself; this aesthetic notion was called ‘desire unbound’. The Dutch Artists in particular within Cobra (Corneille, Appel, Constant) were interested in Children's art.“We Wanted to start again like a child” Karel Appel insisted. As part of the Western Left, they were built upon the fusion of Art and Life through experiment in order to unite form and expression.
CoBrA exhibitions
They exhibited mainly in Holland, but also Paris and other countries in Europe.
Stedelijk Museum exhibition
The first major exhibition was held at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. in November 1949 under the title "International Experimental Art". Else Alfelt
Else Alfelt (16 September 1910 – 9 August 1974) was a Danish artist who specialized in abstract paintings. She was one of two female members of the CoBrA movement. She was married to Carl-Henning Pedersen, another prominent CoBrA member.
Ear ...
, one of a few women involved in the movement, participated in this first exhibition.
The museum's director and curator Willem Sandberg
Jonkheer Willem Jacob Henri Berend Sandberg (24 October 1897 – 9 April 1984) known as Willem Sandberg was a Dutch typographer, museum curator, and member of the Dutch resistance during World War II.
Early life and career
Sandberg was born i ...
was interested in bringing experimentalism and abstraction to The Netherlands, and had also been an active member of the Dutch Resistance during the war. He was deeply involved with the CoBrA group and maintained direct contacts between the artists and the Stedelijk Museum.
The architect Aldo van Eyck
Aldo van Eyck (; 16 March 1918 – 14 January 1999) was a Dutch architect. He was one of the most influential protagonists of the architectural movement Structuralism.
Family
He was born in Driebergen, Utrecht, a son of poet, critic, ess ...
, who would later become known for his architecture of playgrounds as cultural critique, was asked to do the interior design of the exhibition. The close relationship between Van Eyck and the artists from the CoBrA, who also drew their inspiration in particular from children's drawings, makes it probable that much of Eyck's early inspiration for the playgrounds may have derived from CoBrA.
The Stedelijk Museum exhibition gave rise to furious criticism from press and the public. A critic from ''Het Vrije Volk
''Het Vrije Volk'' was a Dutch social-democratic daily newspaper. It was the successor, after World War II, of the socialist daily '' Het Volk''. The paper appeared legally 1 March 1945 in Eindhoven. From 28 January 1946, all subdivisions of the ...
'' (Free People) wrote, “Geklad, geklets en geklodder in het Stedelijk Museum” (“Smirch, twaddle and mess in the SMA"). The CoBrA artists are considered scribblers and con artists
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers have de ...
. Newspapers spoke of offensive art and provocation on the part of the artists, and one evening for experimental poetry at the Stedelijk was the occasion for a public brawl.
Exhibition in Liège
The last CoBrA exhibit was located in Liège
Liège ( , , ; wa, Lîdje ; nl, Luik ; german: Lüttich ) is a major city and municipality of Wallonia and the capital of the Belgian province of Liège.
The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east of Belgium, not far fro ...
, Belgium, in 1951. Shortly after this exhibit, the group dissolved. The show was organised by Pierre Alechinsky
Pierre Alechinsky (born 19 October 1927) is a Belgian artist. He has lived and worked in France since 1951. His work is related to tachisme, abstract expressionism, and lyrical abstraction.
Life
Alechinsky was born in Schaerbeek. In 1944 he ...
, an artist from Belgium. The Dutch architect, Van Eyck designed the exhibition layout, just as he had for the 1949 CoBrA exhibition in Stedelijk. The innovations of this exhibit were that the composition for the wall was in a grid formation. In addition, the sculptures, which were featured in this show were on coal beds from the Liège area itself.
This show was not specific to only CoBrA artists, and also, major artists of the CoBrA movement were not in this exhibit due to the existing conflict within the group that eventually led to the collapse of CoBrA shortly after in the same year.
Group shows
* WestKunst (Cologne, 1981)
* Paris-Paris (Paris, 1981)
* Aftermath (London, 1981)
* Two Survey shows (Hamburg, 1982; Paris and the French provinces also 1982)
* The Spirit of Cobra (Fort Lauderdale, 2013)
Participants
Related artists
Notable artists who had contact with, and/or were influenced by COBRA:
*Enrico Baj
Enrico Baj (October 31, 1924 – June 15, 2003)June 15 according to the Guardian, June 17 according to the-artists.org was an Italian artist and writer on art. Many of his works show an obsession with nuclear war. He created prints, sculptures ...
* Jerome Bech
* James E. Brewton
*Jacqueline de Jong
Jacqueline de Jong (born 1939) is a Dutch painter, sculptor and graphic artist. She was born in the Dutch town of Hengelo to Jewish parents. Faced with the German invasion, they went into hiding. After an abortive escape attempt to England, he ...
*Koos de Bruin
Koos de Bruin (31 December 1941 – 15 March 1992) was a Dutch painter, draftsman, sculptor and graphic artist.
Early life
Koos de Bruin was born on 31 December 1941 in Gouda, South Holland.
At an early age, he showed an aptitude for art and p ...
*Freddy Flores Knistoff
Freddy Flores Knistoff is a painter and poet born in Viña del Mar, Chile in 1948. He has lived in Amsterdam since 1985.
Flores Knistoff is still active in both painting and producing artist's books. He also composes experimental poetry and si ...
* Herbert Gentry
*Robert Jacobsen
Robert Julius Tommy Jacobsen (4 June 1912 – 26 January 1993) was a Danish sculptor and painter. The Danish Robert Award is named in his honor.
Biography
Jacobsen was born in Copenhagen. He was self-taught as a sculptor. During World War ...
* Bengt Lindström
* Jean Messagier
*Vali Myers
Vali Myers (2 August 1930 – 12 February 2003) was an Australian artist, dancer, bohemian and muse whose coverage by the media was mostly in 1950s and 1960s in Europe and the United States.
Early life
Myers was born in Canterbury, Sydney, on ...
* John Olsen
* Gina Pellón (1926–2014)
* Dana Schutz
* Shinkichi Tajiri
* Alasdair Taylor
* Louis Van Lint
*Maurice Wyckaert
Maurice Wyckaert (1923–1996) was a Belgian artist born in Brussels. He is a neo-expressionistic, lyrical abstract painter, gouache designer and printmaker. He was educated at the Academy of Brussels (1940–47 and 1949–50) and in Saint-Joss ...
(1923–1996)
Criticism
* Alison M. Gingeras praises Cobra as being a "...wonderfully messy, cacophonous, and multi-tentacled," entity.["Revisiting The Radically Avant-Garde Movement Art History Forgot". ''The Huffington Post''. Retrieved 2015-09-22](_blank)
/ref>
* Ernest Mancoba (1904–2002), of South Africa, claimed to be one of the only black artists of Cobra. In his own words, Mancoba, a clear supporter of the Cobra movement, criticizes the views of his fellow artists regarding himself: "The embarrassment that my presence caused to the point of making me, in their eyes, some sort of 'Invisible Man' or merely the consort of a European woman artist—was understandable, as before me there had never been to my knowledge any black man taking part in the visual arts 'avant garde' of the Western World."
Legacy
There is a Cobra Museum in Amstelveen
Amstelveen () is a municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands with a population of 92.353 as of 2022. It is a suburban part of the Amsterdam metropolitan area.
The municipality of Amstelveen consists of the historical villag ...
, Netherlands, displaying works by Karel Appel and other international avant-garde artists.
The NSU Art Museum in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is known for its large assemblage of works of CoBrA art. The museum displays works by Karel Appel, Pierre Alechinsky, and Asger Jorn, the movement's leading exponents.[(www.nsuartmuseum.org )]
Auctioneers Bruun Rasmussen held an auction of COBRA artists on April 3, 2006 in Copenhagen. It set records for the highest price for an Asger Jorn
Asger Oluf Jorn (3 March 1914 – 1 May 1973) was a Danish painter, sculptor, ceramic artist, and author. He was a founding member of the avant-garde movement COBRA and the Situationist International. He was born in Vejrum, in the northwest c ...
painting (6.4 million DKK for ''Tristesse Blanche'') and for the highest amount raised in a single auction in Denmark (30 million DKK in total).
See also
* School of Paris
The School of Paris (french: École de Paris) refers to the French and émigré artists who worked in Paris in the first half of the 20th century.
The School of Paris was not a single art movement or institution, but refers to the importan ...
Notes
External links
Didrichsenmuseum.fi
Museum Jorn, Silkeborg
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cobra (Avant-Garde Movement)
Art Informel and Tachisme
Modern art
European artist groups and collectives
Art movements
School of Paris
1940s neologisms
Acronyms