Face is a limited-edition lithograph by Dutch artist Karel Appel, one of the founding figures of the CoBrA movement and one of the most important European expressionist artists of the postwar period.
The work measures 75 × 55 cm / 29.5 × 21.7 in and is hand-signed by Appel. This particular impression is marked A.P., indicating an Artist Proof produced outside the regular numbered edition.
Artist Proofs are traditionally reserved for the artist and are generally produced in a smaller quantity than the standard edition. For collectors, the A.P. designation adds a distinct edition status while remaining part of the same original print production.
The image centers on one of Appel’s recurring subjects: the human face. Throughout his career, Appel repeatedly returned to highly simplified and expressive heads, figures, and creatures, using broad forms, energetic contours, and deliberately non-naturalistic color.
Appel co-founded the CoBrA movement in 1948 together with artists including Constant, Corneille, Asger Jorn, Christian Dotremont, and others. CoBrA artists rejected academic conventions in favor of spontaneity, experimentation, vivid color, and imagery influenced by children’s drawings, folk art, and instinctive mark-making.
Although Appel’s later prints were made long after CoBrA formally dissolved, they continued to carry the same sense of immediacy and expressive force that defined his early work.
