František Kupka, also known as Frank Kupka or François Kupka, was a Czech painter and graphic artist. He was a pioneer and co-founder of the early phases of the abstract art movement and Orphic Cubism (Orphism).
Kupka's abstract works arose from a base of realism, but later evolved into pure abstract art.
František Kupka, circa 1928
Amorpha, Fugue en deux couleurs (Fugue in Two Colors), oil on canvas, 210 × 200 cm, 1912, Národní Galerie
The Salon d'Automne of 1912, held in Paris at the Grand Palais from 1 October to 8 November. Kupka's Fugue in Two Colors is exhibited on the left. Other works are shown by Jean Metzinger (Dancer in a Café), Joseph Csaky (Groupe de femmes), Francis Picabia (La Source), Amedeo Modigliani (sculptures) and Henri Le Fauconnier (Mountaineers Attacked by Bears).
Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world.
Robert Delaunay, 1912–13, Le Premier Disque, 134 cm (52.7 in.), private collection
James McNeill Whistler, Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket (1874), Detroit Institute of Arts
Francis Picabia, c. 1909, Caoutchouc, Centre Pompidou, Musée national d'art moderne, Paris
František Kupka, Amorpha, Fugue en deux couleurs (Fugue in Two Colors), 1912, oil on canvas, 210 × 200 cm, Narodni Galerie, Prague. Published in Au Salon d'Automne "Les Indépendants" 1912, Exhibited at the 1912 Salon d'Automne, Paris.
