COBRA was a post-World War II European avant-garde movement (the name is derived from the initials of the members' home cities: Copenhagen, Brussels, Amsterdam).

COBRA was formed from an amalgamation of the Dutch group Reflex , the Danish group Host and the Belgian Revolutionary Surrealist Group .

There is a COBRA Museum in Amstelveen, Netherlands, displaying works by Karel Appel and other international avant-garde art.

Some of the prominent participants in COBRA were:

• Pierre Alechinsky, (born 1927}
• Else Alfelt, (1910-1974)
• Karel Appel, (born 1921)
• Jean-Michel Atlan, (1913-1960
• Ejler Bille, (born 1910)
• Constant, (born 1920)
• Corneille, (born 1922
• Christian Dotrement , (1922-1981)
• Jacques Doucet , (born 1924
• William Gear , (1915-1997)
• Stephen Gilbert, (born 1910)
• Henry Heerup, (1907-1993)
• Egill Jacobsen , (1910-1998)
• Asger Jorn, (1914-1973)
• Lucebert , (1924-1994)
• Jørgen Nash, (1920-2004)
• Jan Nieuwenhuys, (1922-1986)
• Erik Ortvad, (born 1917)
• Carl-Henning Pedersen , (born 1913)
• Anton Rooskens , (1906-1976)
• Raoul Ubac , (1910-1985)
• Theo Wolvecamp , (1925-1992)

The group held two large expositions, one at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (1949) and the other at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Liège (1951). The primary focus of the group consisted of semiabstract paintings with brilliant color, violent brushwork, and distorted human figures inspired by primitive and folk art and similar to American Action Painting . Cobra was a milestone in the development of European Abstract Expressionism.

External link

• Cobra Museum, Netherlands