COBRA 50th ANNIVERSARYFifty years after the founding of the Cobra group, its influence on modern art is still visible. The same applies to abstract expressionism which was spread worldwide during the 1950's. The goal of the Cobra group was to free art from the norms and art movements of Western art. The group wanted liberation from the emphasis on form and intellect and instead encourage spontaneous painting.Strong colouring was typical for the artists of the group. They were influenced by fairy tales and myths, drawings made by children, primitive art, and by the art of their contemporaries Jean Dubuffet, Paul Klee, Joan Miró and others. Impressions from these different fields made it possible for the artists to encorporate a variety of symbols and images from fantastical and humorous to grotesque, absurd forms. It was common for a group of artists or artists and poets to collaborate. The works consisting of a so called peinture-mot, a poetry-painting, was typical of the Cobra language. The group also published magazines, organized exhibitions and polemic debates. The Cobra ideology manifested itself in all forms of art, particularly paintings, sculptures, ceramics and poetry.
A Belgian ramification in the form of a surrealistic revolutionary movement was formed as early as 1947, lead by Dotremont. The only active Belgian artist of the group was Pierre Alechinsky. The Dutch nucleus consisted of an experimental group of the summer 1948, to which the artists Constant, Karel Appel, Corneille and the poet Lucebert belonged. Anton Rooskens was a part of the group in its early stages, but he left because of differences of opinion. Influenced also within the group were Algerian-born Jean Michel Atlan and the Scottish artist Stephen Gilbert. The Danish sculptor Robert Jacobsen, although never invited to join the group, was part of the activity in Paris at the time Cobra was formed and his works have been associated with the group.
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The Cobra group was founded by Danish artist Asger Jorn, Belgian writer Christian Dotremont and Dutch artist Constant in a Parisian café the Notre Dame on the 8th of November 1948. The name of the group was formed out of the first letters of the artists' hometowns: COpenhagen, BRussels, Amsterdam. The artists, who supported the magazine Helhesten (Hell Horse) which was published in Denmark, constituted the basis of the Cobra group during World War II. Also joining as Cobra members were Danish artists Carl-Henning Pedersen, Egill Jacobsen and sculptor Henry Heerup.
The Cobra group was active only for three years, up until November of 1951, whereafter it formally was dissolved by a common decision. Its revolutionary ideas and awakening of self-realization are still powerfully alive in modern art. The movement posed an important link between rational and irrational, abstract and figurative and between art and nature. Many members from the Cobra group have continued to develop on an individual path and for the most part have gained international acclaim.