COBRA

COBRA (or CoBrA) was a European avant-garde movement, active from 1948 to 1951, formed in Paris. The name was coined from the initials of the members' home cities: Copenhagen (Co), Brussels (Br), Amsterdam (A).

Partly in reaction against what they perceived as the sterile academicism of the de Stijl movement, the COBRA artists assimilated a variety of more-impulsive influences, including folk art, children’s art, poetry, film,and the spontaneity and intensity of the contemporary American Action painting.

COBRA included among its members Karel Appel, Constant, Corneille, Christian Dotremont, Asger Jorn, Pierre Alechinsky, Anton Rooskens, Asger Jorn, Theo Wolvekamp, Carl-Henning Pedersen, Jacques Doucet, Hugo Claus, Lucebert, Reinhoud and Eugene Brands. 

The first of the group’s two large exhibitions, organized by the Danish painter Asger Jorn, was held in 1949 at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.