Cobra

The title is an acronym based on the French spellings of the capitals of these countries. The Dutch co-founders of the Cobra group were the artists Karel Appel, Constant and Corneille, who had previously founded the ‘Experimental Group in Holland’. Two major group exhibitions, in Amsterdam in 1949 and Liege in 1951, put the movement on the map internationally. The term Cobra is commonly used in reference to not only the magazine and the group, but also the style itself. The factor uniting the dozens of participating artists was a belief in spontaneous creativity, which allowed the imagination to flourish and achieve its fullest potential. Cobra’s imaginative, colourful and seemingly spontaneous style continued to resonate for a long time among artists, including ones who were not directly involved.