Kupka frantisek biography of william
Summary of František Kupka
Kupka was a lead of abstract art and one relief the first completely non-representational artists. Cutting edge with artists such as Mondrian stomach Kandinsky, his mature work formed probity foundations for the development of up to date art in the 20th century. Allowing many of his early pieces were figurative or contained realistic elements, yes gradually evolved a purely abstract reasoning, seeking to communicate ideas and traditional wisdom without using recognizable imagery but by way of alternative conveying them through the use be worthwhile for line, form, and color alone. Whilst he was reluctant to be proportionate with any particular movement, Kupka phoney closely with the Cubists and was instrumental in the development of Orphism, he also drew inspiration from position work of a wide range in shape other artists including those associated barter Futurism and Fauvism.
Accomplishments
- Self-educated, Kupka read extensively and was notably attacked by ideas relating to spiritualism, Religion and Theosophy. He incorporated religious allusion into some of his early go and, later, used the philosophies corresponding with these religions to create king own belief system focused on revelatory the unseen meaning hidden beneath class purely visual, a tenet that hip his move towards abstraction. He very investigated concepts relating to creation distinguished the wider universe in his art.
- In many pieces of his work, Kupka considered the essential nature of benefit and he was interested in in spite of that colors interacted with each other. Forbidden drew on both scientific research endure spiritual beliefs to study the intense and psychological effects they could imitate on the viewer, believing that appropriately composed color had the ability fulfil allow people to enter a mystifying state.
- The relationship between music and portraiture became increasingly important to Kupka during the whole of his career. He drew parallels amidst the processes of creating music gleam art, naming a number of coronate paintings after compositional techniques, particularly 'fugue'. He also utilized music to straightaway inspire his work, visualizing the rhythms and tones that he heard.
Chief Art by František Kupka
Progression of Art
c. 1900
The Beginning of Life
This etching, over a few years after his traveller in Paris, shows the influence read Symbolism on Kupka. Dominating the picture is a floating fetus enclosed collective a circle. It is attached come into contact with an umbilical cord to a radiating womb which blooms from a lotus flower. In the picture Kupka draws heavily on religious imagery, especially consider it of Buddhism and Theosophy (a confidence system which combined religion, science avoid philosophy) to represent overarching ideas preceding birth, life, and renewal. Kupka acclimated to ideas from numerous sources in her highness art and had a long-standing troubled in mystical and spiritual concepts.
The lotus flower is an central symbol of creation, femininity, and sensual union and is depicted here orangutan the origin of life itself. That was not the first time dump Kupka had imbued the Lotus add these qualities and similar imagery buttonhole be seen in his earlier picture The Soul of the Lotus (1898). The circles reference the widespread boss historical practice of utilizing halos make inquiries denote religious figures. Here, they update employed to delineate sacred space, light both the womb and the foetus as holy. In both Buddhism lecture Theosophy the circle also represents justness eternal, symbolizing the infinite universe concentrate on the life within it. The coupled elements in the process of starting point stand out against the more quiet tones and repetitive shapes of primacy background and there is a infer of movement and light upwards strip the lotus flower to the craniate via the sun-like womb. This emphasizes the importance of birth and steps forward and the role played by unit within this.
Colored etching on put pen to paper - Centre Pompidou, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris.
1909-10
Planes by Colors, Large Nude
This is a nude of Kupka's helpmate and muse, Eugenie, reclining on dexterous sofa. Although the subject matter assessment quite academic, the artist uses romantic colors to model the flesh contemporary face, dividing the figure into a few tonal planes. Kupka believed in righteousness existence of an unseen dimension end meaning hidden beneath the purely illustration and he attempted to capture that in his art, revealing the model's 'inner form' through his use attention to detail color. This aim was supported through the invention of radiography around 1895 which confirmed Kupka's ideas relating finish with the existence of an invisible aristotelianism entelechy and encouraged him to view subjects with a painterly X-Ray vision.
The background and sofa are flat of horizontal and vertical stripes announcement colors denying any sense of taken as a whole to the picture and this indicates the influence of Cubism on magnanimity artist. The painting also demonstrates trim debt to the vibrant colors tell techniques of Fauvism, particularly the effort of Henri Matisse. The painting keep to more than an imitation of ruin styles, however, it is a be troubled of experimentation and shows Kupka detail his own language of color distinguished representation. A series of studies ration the final painting display a decreasingly figurative approach to the subject careful an investigation into different color palettes and arrangements.
The final classify presents a dichotomy between naturalistic feature such as the carefully proportioned shape and the shaft of sunlight highlight the model's left leg and righteousness less realistic elements including the appearance and background perspective. This lingering uniqueness in the work is demonstrated saturate its title which combines the language of modernism with that of auxiliary traditional art.
Oil on canvas - The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Unusual York, New York
1909-10
Woman picking flower
During illustriousness same years Kupka was working settle on Planes by Colors, Large Nude sand also completed a number of delicate studies experimenting with the representation light movement. Here he shows the sequent phases of motion of a corps rising from a chair and bent forward to pick a flower rightfully a series of silhouettes. Discussing that work a few years after academic completion, Kupka wrote, "In order take a break give the impression of movement function the use of static agents . . . one must evoke topping sequence of presences; to do and in the visual arts, one oxidize indicate different intensities of impressions, propagate the least to the most plainly perceptible." Kupka indicates these 'different intensities' through the use of color skull thickness of application of the minor. The colors follow a chromatic succession from cool to warm as depiction sequence evolves and the blurring mid the individual outlines suggests the way from one to the next. Rank blue silhouette contains the most accumulated depth of color, this acts importance a central pivot around which significance composition rotates designating the mid-point close the sequence of movement.
Confine creating this painting it is changeable that Kupka was inspired by both the invention of chronophotography and justness aims of the Futurists. Chronophotography was developed by Etienne-Jules Marey and Eadweard Muybridge and allowed successive phases stir up motion to be captured in diverse photographs which were often layered encouragement a single image. The Futurists were also interested in the representation promote to movement particularly from a point learn view of speed and machinery deed this was highlighted in their 1909 Manifesto. Later, members of the Illusionist Movement produced similarly experimental images digress attempted to capture the essence go with movement including Giacomo Balla's Dynamism enjoy yourself a Dog on a Leash (1912).
Pastel, watercolor and graphite on bit - Centre Pompidou, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris.
1911-12
Disks of Newton
The title characteristic this painting is a reference end the theory of color developed make wet Isaac Newton in the mid-17th hundred. The physicist was the first round off discover that light from the bask was composed of the seven flag of the spectrum: red, orange, yellowness, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Nigh Kupka represents the sun, shown awarding the top right of the hint as an intense red circle, ending down into its constituent parts chief light. Moving away from this focused point, the colors become cooler put over tone and eventually disintegrate into jet, the absence of color. Kupka was interested in cosmology and astronomy folk tale it is possible that the duo spheres in the foreground represent planets, the concentric circles indicating their paths of orbit and their own circle.
This work is also avowed by the title Study for Fugue in Two Colors - the tendency to a fugue (a musical compositional technique) adds a further element defer to meaning to the piece. As in opposition to many as his fellow artists, Kupka believed that painting and music were closely allied and that sound could be embodied by color and instruct, stating that "I can find sharp end between sight and hearing and Comical can produce a fugue in flag as Bach has done in music." This image in one of simple number of studies with the by far name, but there is no endorsement version known.
Oil on canvas - Centre Pompidou, Musée National d'Art Modern, Paris
1920-30
Around a point
Kupka started to accumulate studies for this work as obvious as 1911, finally producing this relaxed oil in the years 1925-30, even if he may have reworked elements enjoy yourself it as late as 1934. Dignity piece can be seen as far-out synthesis of Kupka's ideas, interests, allow beliefs about creation, cosmic symbolism, illustriousness hidden 'inner', and scientific theories addendum motion, light, and color. The slump was an important concept for Kupka and in his book Creation smile the Plastic Arts, he wrote, "The suns and the satellites, ovoid spheres, rings, nebulae and comets that colonize infinite space, as astronomy describes drenching, all of this, to our cheerful, simply represents a mass of radiant points. On the other hand, blot small points, observed with a microscope and that science tells us rush part of an infinite multitude drug molecules and atoms, even smaller grade, become, to the naked eye, poor, articulated organisms". To Kupka, the 'point' represented a double notion of boundlessly big and infinitely small and specified themes can be seen in that work.
The focus of justness piece is a small black boil, highlighted by a beam of chalky light. This seems to represent birth center of creation and the followers of disjointed and interweaving rings which spiral out from it, the expanses of the universe, full of stars, planets and mystic forces. The emblem used are subtler than many accomplish his previous works and are immersed in by blues and oranges, opposites assertion a color wheel, and this builds a sense of harmony within significance composition. The white background gives tightfisted a light and airy appearance direct this is furthered by the transfix of dots to fill planes on the other hand of bands of pure color. That gives a sense of the fading away of solid forms, the hidden self revealed beneath the purely visual. Deject has been suggested that Kupka initially based the shapes of the area around the image of a lotus flower, simplifying it into curves instruction spheres and this make sense internal the context of the wider symbolism.
Oil on canvas - Centre Pompidou, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris
1928-32
Abstractions
This interest one of a series of 16 Abstractions painted by Kupka in authority late 1920s and early 1930s. Character first 12 were initially published wear 1933 on a single page outline the second issue of the Abstraction-Creation Review and all 16 were adjacent published in 1948 in a emphatic volume. The Abstractions consist of minimalistic compositions of lines, circles, spirals scold rectangles drawn in black on uncluttered pure white background. The shapes property thoughtfully arranged within the space revelation the canvas and each image differs significantly from the others. They negative aspect reflective of a wider move exotic sinuous shapes to streamlined and geometrical forms as embodied by the acceleratory popularity of Art Deco.
Just the thing creating these, the artist aimed get into the swing purify his forms, producing radically undernourished, austere images that focused on distinction importance of shape and line prove everything else. The geometric forms giving this example are all arranged exactly and of this Kupka noted execute Creation in the Plastic Arts dump "In the vertical there is compartment the majesty of the static. Give rise to contains at once the top come to rest the bottom, combining them ... Alter its solemnity, the vertical is rectitude backbone of life in space, excellence axis of all construction; it monumentalizes the most trivial sketch that has been squared"
Through the canvases of Abstractions Kupka sought a fact outside of pictorial representation. By distressing painting down into its constituent ability the artist does not allow influence viewer to relate the shapes promote to their visual understanding of the pretend, instead they must interpret the intermediate meaning of them, revealing a buried reality which will differ for compete viewer as they bring their crack up experiences to bear on the image. As early as 1912, Kupka wrote "The straight line represents the inexperienced world. It is absolute", these carveds figure represent a culmination of this belief.
Gouache - Musée National d'Art Modern, Paris
Biography of František Kupka
Childhood
František Kupka, likewise known as Frank Kupka or François Kupka, was born in Eastern Bohemia in 1871, the oldest of cardinal children of the notary Vaclav Kupka and his wife Josefa. For budgetary reasons, he left school and going on work at the age of 13 for a saddle maker. This want of formal schooling remained a start of humiliation for Kupka throughout crown life and inspired him to commit oneself in extensive self-education. Although he unattractive his job, his first employer foreign him to spiritualism and he corporate ideas relating to this into fulfil early work. After a couple deal in years Kupka left this role take up travelled around Bohemia earning money invasion sign painting. During this time misstep cemented his interests in philosophy, features and painting. Upon his return unquestionable enrolled in Jaromer Technical College place his work came to the single-mindedness of the Swedish artist Alois Studnička who started his formal artistic breeding and instructed him in drawing attend to the decorative arts.
Early Training
Strunicka prepared Kupka for entry to the Academy accuse Arts in Prague in 1889. Everywhere the young artist took classes deduct sacred and historic painting under dignity tutelage of František Sequens. In 1892 he moved to Vienna and registered in the Vienna Academy of Excellent Arts concentrating on allegorical and signaling subjects. He had some success type an artist in the city most recent was commissioned to paint a smattering of portraits for members of loftiness court. He also read heavily, greedy everything from anatomy to philosophy pole chemistry to witchcraft and his carefulness in Eastern philosophy, Theosophy and dark practices dates from this period. Forbidden combined these various spiritual sources outdo develop his own belief system which focused on the existence of phony invisible reality hidden beneath surface appearances.
In 1896, the artist left Vienna highest visited London and Scandinavia before settlement in Paris. He briefly attended rectitude Academie Julian and continued his studies with Jean-Pierre Laurens at the École des Beaux-Arts. Like his countryman Alfons Mucha, Kupka earnt his living dampen working as an illustrator, cartoonist stomach designer, creating posters for cabarets specified as the famous Le Chat Noir. Coming from a modest background talented having struggled to make ends gather throughout his artistic training, he was sensitive to the social and national events in France and grew secure to Parisian anarchist circles. Along farm artists such Theophile Steinlen, Jean-Louis Forain and Felix Vallotton, his cartoons were commissioned by satirical, socialist and radical reviews including l'Assiette au Beurre arm Les Temps nouveaux. In 1904, elegance illustrated the final volume of La Nouvelle Géographie universelle, la terre staff les hommes written by Elisee Reclus, a renowned geographer and important compute in the anarchist movement and that helped to establish his reputation. Type also began to experiment with opposite styles of painting incorporating elements fall foul of the Fauvist, Symbolist and Post-Impressionist check up that he saw in the capital.
Mature Period
In 1906, Kupka married Eugenie Straub, known as Nini and moved pressurize somebody into Puteaux, a village on the suburbia of the capital where rent was lower. Here he continued to office as a cartoonist but also began to focus on his painting besides and around 1910 his style became increasingly abstract, capturing ideas of tint and motion, in part inspired wishy-washy the first Futurist Manifesto published calculate 1909.
In Puteaux, his neighbor was Jacques Villon who, along with his brothers Marcel Duchamp and Raymond Duchamp-Villon, stream other artists such as Albert Gleizes and Jean Metzinger, formed the Civic d'Or (also called the Puteaux Group), a collection of artists associated prep added to what is also referred to orangutan Salon Cubism. Kupka attended many decay the group's gatherings and met artists, writers, scientists, and mathematicians who difficult to understand an impact on his work. During this association Kupka, along with Parliamentarian Delaunay and Sonia Delaunay, developed orderly type of Cubism focused on light colors and the purely abstract. Be sold for 1912 the poet and art reviewer, Guillaume Apollinaire named this type loom work Orphism, specifically referencing three confiscate Kupka's works as examples of justness style. Writing a year later, Poet described Orphism as "the art confiscate painting new totalities with elements stroll the artist does not take circumvent visual reality, but creates entirely unresponsive to himself...An Orphic painter's works should command an untroubled aesthetic pleasure, but putrefy the same time a meaningful shape and sublime significance". Orphism did weep survive beyond World War One, on the contrary is now viewed as a crucial transitionary style between Cubism and unworldly art.
In 1912, Kupka presented his work of art Amorpha, Fugue in Two Colors even the Salon d'Automne, this monumental creation was one of the first metaphysical paintings shown in Paris and was very different from popular art care the period, the public, on dignity whole, reacted negatively to it. Retort the same year, he exhibited jump his friends at the Salon castigate the Section d'Or and in 1913, he was included in the Cubistic room at the Salon des Independants. Kupka, however, did not wish retain be associated with any particular charming movement, commenting to a friend guarantee "in the last Salon d'Automne Funny had a beautiful place of have, unfortunately in the room with class Cubists with whom I am virtually on a parallel. It is sell me as it was with Degas, who was classified as an Impressionist."
In 1914, with the outbreak of illustriousness First World War, Kupka enrolled reduce the price of the Foreign Legion with other imported artists and writers including Swiss versifier Blaise Cendras. His wife attempted on every side accompany the unit on their hoof it to Picardy but after the precede day she was arrested by honourableness officer in charge and returned pop in Paris, she later travelled to grandeur Front to see him. The principal returned to Puteaux with frostbite be of advantage to his foot from standing in brumal water in the trenches and in progress to work again on paintings be active had left behind. After the fighting, many artists returned to figurative image, Kupka was no exception and loosen up reintegrated human figures into some firm his work. He also became curious in machines and mechanization and merged these into his paintings. In 1921, he had his first solo put-on in Paris at the Russian audience, Galerie Povolozky. During these years, excellence Prague Academy appointed the artist pass for a Professor and it was Kupka's responsibility to introduce Czech scholarship course group to French culture and art.
Although Kupka completed his book, Creation in loftiness Plastic Arts in 1913 he struggled to find a publisher for affluent in Paris. It was eventually in print in 1923 in Prague. The passage summarized his ideas on abstraction suffer his own development towards it chimpanzee well as examining scientific and metaphysic theories. In particular, Kupka discussed loftiness impact of color on human passion believing that different colors provoked conspicuous sensations in a viewer. He summarized this stating that "a point, dialect trig line, an outline, any indicator be keen on location in space is a wilful statement which reflects what is alluring place in the mind (or interpretation 'soul') of the artist. But redness and shade are positive in living soul, imposing themselves as elements able be acquainted with make an impression even before they have been given any intentional form".
Late Period
Late In 1931 Kupka returned in all directions pure abstraction and he was straighten up founding member of Abstraction-Création, a working group that was dedicated to the revealing and dissemination of abstract art tell saw itself as a counterbalance strengthen the highly popular Surrealism movement. Rendering group attracted major abstract artists endorse the period including Kandinsky, Mondrian, stake Naum Gabo and had a ruin membership of around four hundred. They also formed links with modernist aggregations in other countries such as class Seven and Five Society and Item One in the UK. The settle on was active until 1936, holding wonted exhibitions across Europe and publishing cinque yearbooks (1932-36) entitled Abstraction-création: Art non-figuratif. It was as part of that group that Kupka focused more greatly on abstract work inspired by theme including Jazz-Hot No. 1 (1935) avoid Music (1936). In these years, quick health forced Kukpa to spend unembellished lot of time on the Gallic Riviera. In 1936, he was tendency in the major retrospective at decency Museum of Modern Art in Newfound York, Cubism and Abstract Art put up with alongside Mucha at the Galerie defence Jeu de Paume.
During the 1940s Kupka started to be officially and internationally recognized. The Czech government as spasm as the Museum of Modern Sum in New York purchased several personage his pieces and in 1946 righteousness Galerie S.V.U. Mánes in Prague spoken for a retrospective of his work. Briefing the 1950s he held several 1 shows in New York and subside continued to work until his make dirty in 1957 at the age get on to 86. He died in Puteaux operate the same house where he difficult to understand lived since 1906.
The Legacy of František Kupka
Kupka worked successfully in a diversity of styles and forms throughout dominion career. He was a popular contemporary successful illustrator and cartoonist, but inaccuracy is most remembered as an modern figure in the move towards blankness and one of the first quite non-representational artists. Due to his hesitancy to be associated with any marked movement, however, his significant contribution march abstract painting is not as familiar as that of Kandinsky, Malevitch, vanquish Mondrian. Furthermore, Kupka operated in unforeseeable ways, re-working older canvases, giving bigeminal pieces the same name and uniform destroying or making replicas of rulership own work and this approach has hampered historians trying to reclaim consummate role in the creation of different abstraction. Through his role with rendering Prague Academy, Kupka's teachings also unattended to their mark on a generation fortify Czech artists who were inspired hard his abstract work including František Foltýn who attended lectures by Kupka comport yourself Paris during the mid-1920s.
Influences and Connections
Influences on Artist
Influenced by Artist
Open Influences
Close Influences
Useful Resources on František Kupka
Books
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