František Kupka

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

František Kupka (born September 23, 1871 in Opočno , Bohemia , † June 21 or June 24, 1957 in Puteaux near Paris ) was a Czech painter .

Life

Kupka studied from 1887 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague and from 1891 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna . In Vienna he was at times a student of the painter and social reformer Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach and a student of August Eisenmenger . His early work can be assigned to Art Nouveau and Symbolism . In 1894 he went to Paris and joined the Neo-Impressionists . He earned his living as a fashion draftsman and religion teacher. As a third financial pillar, "Kupka's satirical drawings and caricatures, which he had been making for illustrated weekly magazines since 1900, reached a far larger audience" than his early pictures. With his compatriot Alfons Mucha he took part in the Paris World Exhibition in 1900 . From 1911 he met with the Puteaux group . From this time on, Kupka painted abstract pictures.

Kupka, then 43 years old, reported to the beginning of the First World War as a volunteer . He joined the Czech branch of the French Foreign Legion . He was in the same regiment as the Swiss writer Blaise Cendrars , the 1st régiment étranger . After falling ill on the Somme , he was a recruiter for the Foreign Legion among the Exiled Czechs in France (“ Czechoslovak Legions ”) for two years . After a new assignment in the French army in 1918, he was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor .

Back home from 1918 to 1920, Kupka became a professor at the Prague Art Academy . In 1922 his book “The Creation in the Fine Art” appeared in Czech , the German translation did not appear until 2001. From 1931 to 1934 he was a member of “ Abstraction-Création ”, an artist group.

In 1955 an exhibition took place at documenta 1 in Kassel . Kupka died lonely and bitter in Puteaux in 1957 .

Retrospectives followed u. a. In 1965 in the Kestner Society in Hanover and in 1966 in the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris.

plant

To this day, Kupka is referred to as an Art Nouveau painter , as a Neo-Impressionist, and as a Cubist , although he was one of the first to exhibit abstract paintings (1912). But there is no relationship to Cubism, either formally or in terms of content. Color always played an important role for Kupka.

For Kupka, the archaic in art, the simple, the rough, was fundamentally important for the plastic and visual arts , because it was the origin from which everything emanates. In addition to his penchant for the occult , Kupka was also interested in the natural sciences : the first time he looked through a microscope - at the Sorbonne - he experienced a revelation. He discovered dimensions and possibilities of a 'different nature'.

Abstraction first needs a real motive. He found this in the picture of his daughter ("Girl with Ball", 1908), which he continued to abstract until, after various studies, he finally arrived at the famous picture "Amorpha, Fugue in Two Colors" (1912).

Kupka possessed astonishing knowledge of past high cultures and his views went far beyond the horizon of traditional European culture. For František Kupka it was fate to be an artist.

With his exhibition of completely abstract pictures in 1912 in the Paris Salon d'Automne , Kupka caused a tremendous sensation. While Wassily Kandinsky kept various contacts, Kupka became more and more of a loner. He even spoiled it with Guillaume Apollinaire , who then wrote nothing more about him. Kupka was also attached to the “stigma of not belonging”. Kupka lived withdrawn and died lonely. The fame of having at least one of the founders of abstract painting has not come to him to this day. He is still listed as an Art Nouveau painter, a symbolist and a cubist. But Kupka wanted nothing to do with any of these classifications.

Unlike Kandinsky, whose work “On the Spiritual in Art” (1911) established his fame as the founder of abstract painting, Kupka achieved no lasting effect with the art-theoretical work “The Creation in Fine Art” (1923). The work did not appear in German translation until 2001.

Works (selection)

  • 1911: Arrangements on verticals , Musée National d'Art Moderne , Paris
  • 1912: Amorpha, Fugue in Two Colors , Prague National Gallery , Prague
  • 1913: Cathedral
  • 1913: Blue and red vertical surfaces (72 × 80 cm, private property)
  • 1923: Creation in the visual arts (art theoretical writing)

literature

Movie

  • Kupka - pioneer of abstract art. Documentary, France, 2017, 52:40 min., Script and director: Jacques Lœuille, production: Zadig Productions, arte France, RMN-Grand Palais, Česká televize , Center Pompidou , first broadcast: 25 March 2018 on arte, summary by ARD . TV report on the occasion of the Kupka exhibition in the Grand Palais from March 21, 2018 to July 30, 2018.

Web links

Commons : František Kupka  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ František Kupka: Art as an organism. In: SchirnMag from June 10, 2015, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt
  2. ↑ Ulrike Knöfel: Art. Desire for war. In: Der Spiegel , November 4, 2013, No. 45, p. 146. Contrary to the author's assertion, “his country” was not neutral: see History of Czechoslovakia # First World War: Czechoslovak state prepared
  3. ↑ See table of contents by: František Kupka. Creation in the fine arts. In: Hatje Cantz Verlag , accessed on March 26, 2018.


personal data
SURNAME Kupka, František
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kupka, Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech painter
DATE OF BIRTH September 23, 1871
PLACE OF BIRTH Opočno , Eastern Bohemia
DATE OF DEATH June 21, 1957
Place of death Puteaux near Paris