Two Young Girls 1971

Curator: Standing before us is "Two Young Girls," an acrylic on canvas work crafted by Karel Appel in 1971. What's your first reaction? Editor: It hits you like a playground. Those vibrant blocks of colour, thick impasto, that almost childlike... energy? Curator: Appel was all about spontaneity, like letting loose. I see the painting almost as a celebration of pure feeling, unburdened expression, right? Like screaming colours! Editor: Absolutely, but it also reads as incredibly deliberate. Look at how Appel layers those acrylics – you see the push and pull. It's not just slapping paint, there is intentionality and, dare I say, tension between high art's seriousness and craft's joyful materiality. How does it sit alongside art making at the time? Curator: Remember, he comes out of that CoBrA group in the late 40s. A movement which prized impulsive, primitive art-making and children's drawings! I find the naivete disarming. Editor: Disarming, maybe. But also, incredibly aware. In a pop-art infused 1971 setting, the materials are front and centre. The production screams. It doesn't hide its 'making.' The thickness, the layers. Curator: Hiding's no fun! Maybe, at its core, it hints at this sort of universal feeling of innocence that we maybe project onto childhood or, more specifically, young girlhood. Even with those angular shapes. Editor: See, that reading interests me less than what Appel does *with* those shapes, what that means for the art world at the time. I can see geometric hints alongside pop and abstract styles. Curator: Okay, perhaps less idealized sentiment and more material experimentation. Editor: Precisely. Thinking of our reliance on industrially produced paints... Anyway, food for thought! Curator: Absolutely. Every viewing's a bit like stepping into that playground and seeing what your mind grabs onto. A colourful explosion, indeed!