Hip, Hip, Hoorah!
- Artist: Karel Appel
- Date: 1949
- Medium: Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions: support: 817 x 1270 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is "Hip, Hip, Hoorah!" by Karel Appel, painted in 1949. The title rings out like a cheer for the freedom CoBrA found after the war—a small collective from Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam that wanted to shake up art. Appel puts four hybrid creatures on a black night‑sky: a male and a female, a two‑headed bird‑man, and a creature with a woman’s breast and animal body. The colours—red, yellow, green—pop against the darkness, echoing the bright, spontaneous strokes kids use when they draw. That child‑like energy is exactly what Appel prized; he saw the child in man as the most open, unpredictable force. The painting feels like a party for night‑time beings, full of joy, color, and a dash of chaos that says, “hip, hip, hoorah!”
See it in person
Hip, Hip, Hoorah! is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
