Art in the Ambassade Hotel

Cobra

Cobra is the name of an artists movement that originated on the 8th of November 1948 in Paris; it was a movement that was a collaboration of primarily artists from Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands. The name Cobra was derived from the first letters of the capital cities of Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam.

Affiliated Danish artists were painters Asger Jorn, Carl-Henning Pedersen, Egill Jacobsen, and sculptor Henry Heerup. Belgium was represented chiefly by writers, the most prominent one being poet/painter Christian Dotremont. The most famous affiliated Belgian painter being Pierre Alechinsky.

The Dutch contribution was formed by the members of the "Experimental Group in Holland" which was founded in July 1948 by the painters Constant, Karel Appel, Corneille, Eugène Brands, Anton Rooskens and Theo Wolvecamp, as well as poets, one of whom was a poet/designer, and later also a painter, Lucebert.

The associated artists lived in hope of a new society and a new form of art. They abandoned the aesthetic standards of western culture and searched for a spontaneous and experimental method of working, inspired by children's drawings and primitive art. The common "Cobra language" was characterised by imaginary beings, vivid colours and a spontaneous use of colour and lines.