cobra was formed by karel appel, constant, corneille, christian dotremont, asger jorn, and joseph noiret on the 8th november 1948 in the café notre-dame, paris, with the signing of a manifesto, ""la cause était entendue" ("the case was settled"), drawn up by dotremont. formed with a unifying doctrine of complete freedom of colour and form, as well as antipathy towards surrealism, the artists also shared an interest in marxism as well as modernism.