Karel Appel and Dieter Roth: Cats and Dogs

Offering a playful and amusing take on two of the most adored domestic animals, cats and dogs, this installation was selected from two lithographic portfolios by Dutch artist Karel Appel (1921 – 2006) and German-born artist Dieter Roth (1930 – 1998).

Roth was a printmaker, sculptor, painter, poet and performance artist and part of the Fluxus movement, an experimental group of international artists, musicians and performers whose work challenged conventional notions of artistic practice. Animals were a common subject for him and the prints from his portfolio, 2 Times 5 Dogs, illustrate the artist’s energetic approach to drawing.

Appel was most closely associated with CoBrA, an experimental group of artists from Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam working in the late 1940s and early 1950s. His colorful, expressionistic renderings of felines in prints from the Cats portfolio contrasts with Roth’s frenetic, and mostly monochromatic, canines. In works from these portfolios, created independently of one another, both artists capture cats and dogs with whimsy, humor and joy.