Despite Piet Mondrian, not all Dutch artists are squares. The most noted American abstract expressionist, Willem de Kooning, is Rotterdam Dutch, and his opposite number in Europe, Karel Appel, is Amsterdam Dutch. Last week Appel both enthralled and infuriated the home town with a major retrospective at Amsterdam's Municipal Museum. Appel himself stayed in his house in Paris. "I can't stand Holland," Appel confided fiercely, "for more than two or three days."
Boff & Grunt. His frankness interlarded with frenzy and his open face barred with a villainous black mustache, Appel happily plays the abstract-expressionist role. Painting, he says, "is a battle!...
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