COBRA or Cobra, often stylized as CoBrA, constituted a European avant-garde art movement that operated between 1948 and 1951. Christian Dotremont originated the appellation in 1948, deriving it from the initial letters of the capital cities representing the members' native countries: Copenhagen (Co), Brussels (Br), and Amsterdam (A).
Historical Overview
The Netherlands experienced isolation from the international art community throughout its occupation during World War II. CoBrA emerged in the immediate post-war period. This international collective of experimental artists developed in response to critiques of Western society and a shared ambition to diverge from established artistic currents, notably rejecting both "detested" naturalism and "sterile" abstraction. Constant posited that experimentation represented an unconstrained liberty, finding its ultimate manifestation in the spontaneous expressions of children. The formal establishment of CoBrA occurred on November 8, 1948, at the Café Notre-Dame in Paris, through the signing of the manifesto "La cause était entendue" ("The Case Was Settled"), authored by Dotremont. Its founding members included Karel Appel, Constant, Corneille, Christian Dotremont, Asger Jorn, and Joseph Noiret. The group's foundational principles encompassed an absolute freedom of color and form, coupled with an aversion to Surrealism. Additionally, its members held a common interest in both Marxism and modernism.
The collective's artistic methodology emphasized spontaneity and experimental approaches. Their primary sources of inspiration included children's drawings, primitive art forms, and the oeuvres of Paul Klee and Joan Miró.
Formed through the convergence of the Dutch group Reflex, the Danish group Høst, and the Belgian Revolutionary Surrealist Group, this collective, despite its relatively brief existence, successfully accomplished several key objectives. These included the publication of the periodical Cobra, the creation of a collaborative series titled Peintures-Mot, and the organization of two significant exhibitions. The initial exhibition took place at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in November 1949, followed by a second at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Liège in 1951.
Notably, the group included Ernest Mancoba, a Black artist. Mancoba was married to Sonja Ferlov Mancoba, a Danish sculptor and one of the few women actively participating in the movement.
By November 1949, as its membership expanded across Europe and the United States, the group formally adopted the name Internationale des Artistes Expérimentaux, though this designation did not gain widespread recognition. The movement formally dissolved in 1951; however, numerous members maintained close ties, with Dotremont notably sustaining collaborative efforts with several prominent figures from the collective. The group's artistic output primarily featured semi-abstract paintings characterized by vibrant coloration, vigorous brushwork, and stylized human forms, drawing inspiration from primitive and folk art, and exhibiting parallels with American action painting. CoBrA represented a significant landmark in the evolution of Tachisme and European Abstract Expressionism.
CoBrA is arguably considered the final avant-garde movement of the twentieth century. Nathalie Aubert notes that the group's official duration spanned only three years, from 1948 to 1951. Subsequent to this period, each artist pursued distinct individual trajectories.
The Group's Manifesto
Authored by CoBrA member Christian Dotremont and signed by all founding members in Paris in 1948, the manifesto was titled "La cause était entendue" (The Case Was Settled). This document directly addressed their perception of a sterile and authoritarian environment encountered during their attendance at the Centre International de Documentation sur l'Art d'Avant-garde. It articulated a commitment to collaborative work within an organic, experimental framework, aiming to cultivate their artistic practice independently from the prevailing avant-garde discourse. Furthermore, the manifesto's title constituted a linguistic allusion to an earlier document, "La cause est entendue" (The Case Is Settled), which had been signed by Belgian and French Revolutionary Surrealists in July 1947.
Methodology
European artists, in contrast to their American Abstract Expressionist counterparts, prioritized the artistic process over the final product. They integrated primitive, mythical, and folkloric elements, alongside decorative influences from children's art and graffiti. A unifying characteristic among CoBrA artists was their uninhibited application of vibrant colors, coupled with dynamic, almost violent, brushwork and figuration that ranged from unsettling to whimsical. Their artwork frequently featured subhuman figures, intended to reflect the terror and vulnerability of their era, thereby contrasting with the dehumanized aesthetic often found in Abstraction. This spontaneous methodology constituted a rejection of Renaissance art, artistic specialization, and what they termed 'civilized art'. Instead, they favored 'uncivilized' modes of expression that fostered an interaction between the conscious and unconscious, diverging from the Surrealist focus solely on the unconscious. The incorporation of childlike elements in their approach signified a profound enjoyment in the act of painting, engaging with materials, forms, and the completed artwork itself; this aesthetic concept was termed 'desire unbound'. Notably, Dutch artists within the CoBrA group, including Corneille, Appel, and Constant, exhibited a particular interest in children's art. Karel Appel famously asserted, "We wanted to start again like a child." As proponents of the Western Left, their philosophy was founded on the experimental integration of art and life, aiming to unify form and expression.
CoBrA Exhibitions
Their exhibitions primarily took place in the Netherlands, but also extended to Paris and other European nations.
Stedelijk Museum Exhibition
The inaugural significant exhibition, titled "International Experimental Art," was hosted at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in November 1949. Else Alfelt, one of the few female participants in the movement, was featured in this initial presentation.
Willem Sandberg, the museum's director and curator, was committed to introducing experimentalism and abstraction to the Netherlands, having also served as an active member of the Dutch Resistance during the war. He maintained a close association with the CoBrA group, facilitating direct communication between the artists and the Stedelijk Museum.
Aldo van Eyck, an architect who would later gain recognition for his playground designs as a form of cultural critique, was commissioned to undertake the exhibition's interior design. Given the strong connection between Van Eyck and the CoBrA artists, who themselves drew considerable inspiration from children's drawings, it is plausible that a significant portion of Van Eyck's early conceptualization for playgrounds originated from his engagement with CoBrA.
The Stedelijk Museum exhibition provoked intense criticism from both the press and the public. A reviewer for Het Vrije Volk (Free People) famously described it as "Geklad, geklets en geklodder in het Stedelijk Museum" ("Smirch, twaddle, and mess in the SMA"). CoBrA artists were frequently dismissed as mere scribblers and charlatans. Newspaper reports highlighted the perceived offensiveness and provocative nature of the artists' work, with one experimental poetry evening at the Stedelijk even escalating into a public altercation.
Exhibition in Liège
The final CoBrA exhibition took place in Liège, Belgium, in 1951, preceding the group's dissolution shortly thereafter. This event was organized by Belgian artist Pierre Alechinsky. Dutch architect Van Eyck, who had previously designed the 1949 CoBrA exhibition at the Stedelijk, was responsible for the layout. Notable innovations included a grid formation for the wall compositions and the display of sculptures on coal beds sourced directly from the Liège region.
This particular exhibition was not exclusively dedicated to CoBrA artists, and several prominent figures from the movement were absent due to internal conflicts that ultimately contributed to CoBrA's dissolution later that year.
Group Exhibitions
- WestKunst (Cologne, 1981)
- Paris-Paris (Paris, 1981)
- Aftermath (London, 1981)
- Two Survey Exhibitions (Hamburg, 1982; Paris and French Provinces, 1982)
- The Spirit of CoBrA (Fort Lauderdale, 2013)
- CoBrA (Mannheim, 2023)
Participants
Related Artists
Prominent artists who either interacted with or were influenced by CoBrA include:
Critical Reception
- Alison M. Gingeras lauded CoBrA as a "...wonderfully messy, cacophonous, and multi-tentacled" entity.
- Ernest Mancoba (1904–2002), a South African artist, asserted his unique position as one of the few Black artists associated with CoBrA. Mancoba, a vocal proponent of the CoBrA movement, articulated his critique of his peers' perceptions of him: "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
The Cobra Museum in Amstelveen, Netherlands, showcases artworks by Karel Appel and various other international avant-garde artists.
The NSU Art Museum in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, possesses a significant collection of CoBrA art. This institution exhibits pieces by Karel Appel, Pierre Alechinsky, and Asger Jorn, who were prominent figures within the movement.
On April 3, 2006, Bruun Rasmussen auctioneers conducted an auction featuring CoBrA artists in Copenhagen. This event established new records, including the highest price achieved for an Asger Jorn painting (6.4 million DKK for Tristesse Blanche) and the largest total sum generated in a single Danish auction (30 million DKK).
- School of Paris
Notes
- Didrichsenmuseum.fi
- Museum Jorn, Silkeborg