Fantasy Uncoiled - Prints by Cobra Artists December 13, 2008

In 1949 the Surrealists met in Paris to establish a plan of international collaboration. The artists from Copenhagen, Brussels, and Amsterdam were bitterly disappointed in what they viewed as Surrealism's suffocating intellectualism and, in a Parisian cafA(C), influenced by the philosophy of Karl Jung, artists MirA(3), Klee, and the German Expressionists, and the Marxist ideal of a people's art, penned their own manifesto. Calling themselves CoBrA (an acronym for their cities of origin) they sought to combat sterile and dogmatic theories through childlike spontaneity and instinctive imagery. Painters and poets whose art the Nazis had labeled degenerate, CoBrA members sought nothing less than the liberation of the human spirit. CoBrA lasted a mere three years, yet the three artists in this exhibition illustrate a lifelong commitment to its goals. Anton Rooskens spent his life experimenting with "primitive" forms to realize the mythic archetypes he believed were common among all peoples. Denied paint by the Nazis during the war, EugA..ne Brands had worked with expressionistically applied ink and continued to play with free-flowing pigment, while Balle reaffirmed his commitment to spontaneous abstraction. Each of the 36 prints in this exhibition is an intimate entrA(C)e into the CoBrA world. A celebration of fantasy seemingly unfettered by academic standards, they charm us into questioning the nature of creativity. A gift from Sylvia B. Cohn, Lifetime Member of Joslyn's Board of Governors and longtime Museum benefactress, in honor of her late sister Frances Batt, these impressions are a delight to the eye and a challenge to aesthetic preconceptions. This exhibition is supported in part by FVB Foundation. Date: September 13, 2008 - January 11, 2009 Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 10 am - 4 pm Sunday, noon - 4 pmGeneral Admission: $7 adults $5 senior citizens (62 and older) & college students (with valid ID) $4 age 5-17 Free admission for children under age 5 and Joslyn members. Free general admission, Saturdays, 10 am - noon, made possible by a grant from the Peter Kiewit Foundation