Wild Horse Rider 

Curator: "Wild Horse Rider," we believe it’s a lithograph print by Karel Appel. What grabs you first? Editor: Well, pure, primal energy, honestly! Look at those colours— the boldness of that cadmium red. It’s unsettling and lively. Feels like something untamed is about to burst out of the frame, barely held back by the… paper, I guess. Curator: It’s that tension between raw expression and the constraint of the medium that fascinates me. Appel was a CoBrA group founder, a movement that stood for spontaneous creation and child-like wonder. Editor: CoBrA, yes. Looking at this, I immediately wonder about the process. Was this stone lithography or perhaps metal plate? And look at the layers. Each block must have been meticulously prepared, even if the final result appears… carefree. Someone spent time on the surface, negotiating this process— Curator: Negotiating, I like that! It also speaks of humanity. In Appel's work, there is a struggle but always a hint of joy. That figure, that rider. A kind of mythical, slightly demented centaur, battling with forces we can't quite name, right? Editor: And that monochrome look simplifies everything. It all goes back to the materials, right? What was available, what could be done efficiently, the costs, where this print would ultimately circulate… Even the expressive gesture is rooted in a very physical and economical reality, that dictates the available colours. Curator: Right, like a conversation happening on that very paper. Every layer adds something— some urgency and truth! Like it's always just *happening.* Editor: Well, seeing how all those materials meet can change everything about how we see this— and I guess, that makes this "Wild Horse Rider" forever unfixed, isn't it? A process rather than an image. Curator: Yes, a glorious struggle, immortalised for us. I can't look away! Editor: And I'm now desperate to see the actual lithographic plates. Thanks, Appel!