Frantisek Kupka

Frantisek Kupka was a Czech artist and writer who lived and worked in France for most of his life. He is rightly considered one of the pioneers of abstract painting in the history of fine art and one of the first completely unrepresentative artists. In 1912, he participated in the Golden Section Cubist exhibition at the Salon des Indépendants, exhibiting, among others, the works that are considered the first abstract paintings.

The artist’s creative style evolved from realism and symbolism to abstract art. He worked closely with Cubists and played an essential role in the development of Orphism. Art critic Guillaume Apollinaire, in his article on such a type of Cubism as Orphism, referred, in particular, to works of Kupka as examples of a new style.

Mature works of Frantisek Kupka are on a par with the creations of such artists as Piet Mondrian and Wassily Kandinsky and formed the basis for the development of contemporary art in the 20th century. In 1931, he became one of the founders of the international organization of innovative artists Abstraction-Création.

The decision of the management of the New York Museum of Modern Art to include works of Frantisek Kupka in the permanent exhibition of abstraction and cubism, called the “historical overview of the important movement in contemporary art”, was an unconditional recognition of the importance of the Czech artist in the history of modernism.

Key ideas:
– Many of the early works of Frantisek Kupka were figurative or contained quite realistic elements. Actively engaged in self-education, Kupka read a lot and was influenced by ideas related to spiritualism, Buddhism and Theosophy.

– Kupka included religious symbolism in the plots of his earlier works, later also used a philosophy related to several religions. This contributed to the creation of his system of images and artistic solutions, focused on the disclosure of invisible meanings hidden under their “appearance”. These concepts shaped his movement toward abstraction.

– The artist sought to convey his ideas and artistic convictions, not using recognizable images but expressing those using lines and forms. He also examined the essence of colour and was interested in how colours interact with each other. He believed that the right paints could help people to enter an original state.

– Frantisek Kupka explored the concept of a broad universe in art, using both scientific information and spiritual beliefs to study the emotional and psychological effects of the painting on the viewer.

– Having developed his recognizable purely abstract style, the master did not want to be associated with any particular movement. At the same time, Kupka worked closely with Cubists and played an important role in the development of Orphism. The artist was inspired by the creativity of a wide range of other creators, including those who were associated with Pointillism, Futurism and Fauvism.

– For Kupka, the relationship between music and painting was important: calling a number of his works “fugues”, he drew direct parallels between the processes of creating music and pictures. He also used music as a source of inspiration and to visualize the rhythms and tones that he heard.

– Kupka was a pioneer of Abstract art and one of the first utterly unrepresentative painters. Along with the works of artists such as Mondrian and Kandinsky, his mature works formed the basis for the development of contemporary art in the 20th century.