cobra

cobra¹

/koh"breuh/, n.

1. any of several highly venomous, Old World elapid snakes of the genera Naja and Ophiophagus, characterized by the ability to flatten the neck into a hoodlike form when disturbed.

2. any of several similar, related African snakes, as the ringhals.

3. leather made from the skin of a cobra.

4. (cap.) Mil. a single-engine, two-seat U.S. Army attack helicopter armed with missiles, rockets, and a 20mm cannon and in service since 1977.

[1810-20; short for COBRA DE CAPELLO]

cobra²

/koh"breuh, kob"reuh/, n. Australian.

head; skull.

[1825-35; < Dharuk gabara]

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Expressionist group of painters formed in Paris in 1948.

The name derives from the first letters of the capitals of their native countries: Copenhagen, Brussels, and Amsterdam. The group, which disbanded in 1951, included Karel Appel, Pierre Alechinsky (b. 1927), Jean-Michel Atlan (1913–60), Guillaume Corneille (b. 1922), and Asger Jorn (1914–73). Their work, influenced by poetry, film, folk art, and "primitive" art, featured brilliant colour and spontaneous brushwork akin to action painting; the human figure was a frequent motif.

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▪ art group

      Expressionist group of painters whose name is derived from the first letters of the three northern European cities—Copenhagen, Brussels, Amsterdam—that were the homes of its members. The first of the group's two large exhibitions, organized by the Danish painter Asger Jorn (Jorn, Asger), was held in 1949 at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the second exhibition was held in 1951 at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Liège, Belgium. COBRA included among its members Karel Appel (Appel, Karel), Corneille (Corneille Guillaume Beverloo), Constant (Nieuwenhuis), Pierre Alechinsky, Lucebert (Lubertus Jacobus Swaanswijk), and Jean Atlan. Influenced by poetry, film, folk art, children's art, and primitive art, the semiabstract canvases by these artists display brilliant colour and spontaneous, violent brushwork that is akin to American Action painting. The human figure, treated in a wildly distorted, Expressionistic manner, is a frequent motif in their art. COBRA had a great impact on the development of subsequent European Abstract Expressionism.

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