František Kupka
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
František Kupka was a Czech painter and illustrator who was involved with Theosophy and Eastern philosophy. With Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, and others, he established a movement of non-representational abstract art.
Early Life and Education
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
František Kupka was born on September 23, 1871, in Opocno in eastern Bohemia (now the Czech Republic). He was inspired by stained glass and gothic cathedrals at an early age. During his childhood in Boehemia, he apprenticed for a saddler who was a spiritualist and led a secret society.[1] Kupka was drawn to spirituality and became a medium. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague from 1889 to 1892, where he first began to work with geometrics, starting with vertical works in a rhythmic force. He then moved to Vienna to study at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste. During his training, Kupka initially painted historical and patriotic themes; and then began to explore subjects that were symbolic or allegorical. His first exhibition was at the Kunstverein in Vienna in 1894. He was stimulated by artists and the environment in Vienna, and this is where he first got involved with Theosophy and eastern religions.[2]
Theosophical influences
The artistic circles in Europe of the 1890s and early twentieth century were filled with influences from Western esotericism and Eastern religions.
František Kupka started out as spiritualist medium, widening his interests as an adult into Theosophy, astrology, and Eastern religions. he did not become a Theosophist, nor did he embrace all the tenets of Theosophy, but was drawn to certain elements that resembled and expanded upon his personal mystical world view. His visions and mediumistic experiences resonated with Theosophical theories of astral vision and the astral world. his personal notes show that he was quite well read in the writings of Blavatsky, Besant, Leadbeater, and Steiner.[3]
Like Kandinsky, Kupka focused on color, proportions, and forms that could be biomorphic or geometric. His views were similar to the Belgian Symbolists like Jean Delville.
Working in Paris alongside the Cubists in the early 1910s, Kupka became interested in theories concerning vibration, radiation, and the emission of waves; scientific themes that were very popular in occult and Theosophical circles at the time. Coincidentally, he was also influenced by synaesthetic theories concerning the unity of music and color (the "color" of sound), current in the avant-garde and in certain Theosophical circles. Kupka combined these with the Theosophical idea that nature manifests itself rhythmically in geometric forms.
His Theosophical syncretic vision of science and the spiritual coincided with Steiner's vision of the unity of science, art and religions. It determined the subject matter of Kupka's art: the dynamic process of the universe.[4]
Associations between colors and musical notes were of great interest to Kupka and Kandinsky, and the color chards in the Besant-Leadbeater book Thought Forms were influential. Kupka explored relationships science, the spiritual, and music in works like the Disks of Newton or Study for 'Fugue in Two Colors', painted in 1912.
Artistic Style and Career
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Soon after, in Paris, he worked as an illustrator of books and posters gaining recognition for his satirical drawings. In 1906, he exhibited at the Salon de Automne. In 1907, he released his self-portrait called Yellow Scale. For Kupka, the musical scale was important and vibration was key. He called his works that blended color and music “Symmorphies”. As referenced in his letters, he was heavily influenced by the writings of Annie Besant including Man and His Bodies, Life After Death, Reicarnation, Karma, and Thought Forms.[5] She said sound is always associated with color and those who have developed their inner senses can perceive the colors. He got involved with the Orphism movement, which explored the relationship between music and painting. Some saw Orphism as a step in the transition from cubism to abstraction.[6]
In 1910, he announced that “he was preparing to state publicly his beliefs in theosophical principles and spiritualism.”[7] Astral vision and science (astronomy and astrophysics) became integral to his work.[8] For him, the inner world was linked to the cosmos and he used theosophical symbols (sphinx, lotus etc.) and concepts (planetary chain, involution/evolution, ascent from matter to spirit, thought forms) in his paintings to depict the relationship between the universe and man.[9]
By 1912, his work took on a more poetic and internal vision of life and nature. Kupka worked in series, similar to musical composers, with each drawing revealing his keen interest in motion and perception. Like other artists, he employed dematerialization [10] in some of his series and the work became more abstract with the play of form (color, light, and composition). He began writing a book on the nature of art (La Creation dans Les arts plastiques) which was eventually published in 1923. It revealed that he had read Blavatsky’s The Secret Doctrine and works by Rudolf Steiner.[11] He became a founding member of the Abstract-Creation group in 1931. In 1936, his work was included in an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art. His work was included in exhibits with other Czech artists. In the 1950s, his work was generally recognized and he had several solo exhibits in NY.
He was an avid meditator and vegetarian. He passed away on June 24,1957. His funeral was held in a secret place by a secret society.[12]
Additional resources
Exhibitions and Museum Collections
MoMA, https://www.moma.org/artists/3302-frantisek-kupka
Guggenheim, New York, https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/frantisek-kupka
Museum Kampa, https://www.museumkampa.cz/vystava/kupka-gutfreund-en/
Art Institute of Chicago, https://www.artic.edu/artists/35358/frantisek-kupka
Videos
SASIG #19: Prof. Fay Breuer presents Composing “Symmorphies”: Frantisek Kupka’s Chromatic Music, September 21, 2024, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cDnxqUGrL1I
Frantisek Kupka: Pioneer de l’abstraction (documentary in French with English subtitles, Ramon Kastner, December 25, 2022, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ7GcQFSa-w
Notes
- ↑ "Hidden Meanings in Abstract Art", Maurice Tuchman, The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890-1985, as organized by Maurice Tuchman, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, p. 35
- ↑ See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/František_Kupka
- ↑ Tessel M. Bauduin, "Abstract Art as 'By-Product of Astral Manifestation': The Influence of Theosophy on Modern Art in Europe" Handbook of the Theosophical Current (Leiden: Brill, 2013), 432.
- ↑ Tessel M. Bauduin, "Abstract Art as 'By-Product of Astral Manifestation': The Influence of Theosophy on Modern Art in Europe" Handbook of the Theosophical Current (Leiden: Brill, 2013), 437.
- ↑ See SASIG #19: Prof. Fay Breuer presents Composing “Symmorphies”: Frantisek Kupka’s Chromatic Music, September 21, 2024, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cDnxqUGrL1I
- ↑ See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orphism_(art)
- ↑ "Hidden Meanings in Abstract Art", Maurice Tuchman, The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890-1985, as organized by Maurice Tuchman, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, p. 36
- ↑ See SASIG #19: Prof. Fay Breuer presents Composing “Symmorphies”: Frantisek Kupka’s Chromatic Music, September 21, 2024, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cDnxqUGrL1I/
- ↑ "Sacred Geometry: French Symbolism and Early Abstraction", Robert P. Welsh, The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890-1985, as organized by Maurice Tuchman, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, pp.79-82
- ↑ "Transcending the Visible: The Generation of the Abstract Pioneers", Sixten Ringbom, The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890-1985, as organized by Maurice Tuchman, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, p. 146
- ↑ "Chronologies: Artists and the Spiritual", Judi Freeman, The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890-1985, as organized by Maurice Tuchman, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, p. 408
- ↑ "Chronologies: Artists and the Spiritual", Judi Freeman, The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890-1985, as organized by Maurice Tuchman, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, p. 408
