František Kupka

František Kupka (1871-1957) was one of the most important pioneers of European abstract painting and a defining voice within the early twentieth-century avant-garde. Born in Opočno in eastern Bohemia in 1871, he studied at the Prague Art Academy from 1889 to 1892, painting historical and patriotic themes during his early years. In 1892, Kupka enrolled at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Vienna, where he concentrated on symbolic and allegorical subjects and exhibited at the Kunstverein in 1894. His involvement with theosophy and Eastern philosophy dates from this period. By the spring of 1896 Kupka had settled in Paris, where he attended the Académie Julian briefly and then studied with Jean-Pierre Laurens at the École des Beaux-Arts.

Kupka worked as an illustrator of books and posters and, during his early Parisian years, became known for his satirical drawings for newspapers and magazines. In 1906 he settled in Puteaux, a suburb of Paris, and that same year exhibited for the first time at the Salon d'Automne. He was deeply impressed by the first Futurist manifesto, published in 1909 in Le Figaro, and his work became increasingly abstract around 1910 and 1911, reflecting his theories of motion, color, and the relationship between music and painting. In 1911 he attended meetings of the Puteaux group, and in 1912 he exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants in the Cubist room, though he did not wish to be identified with any movement.

Creation in the Plastic Arts, a book Kupka completed in 1913, was published in Prague in 1923. In 1921 his first solo show in Paris was held at Galerie Povolozky. In 1931 he became a founding member of Abstraction-Création together with Jean Arp, Albert Gleizes, Jean Hélion, Auguste Herbin, Theo van Doesburg, and Georges Vantongerloo. In 1936 his work was included in the exhibition Cubism and Abstract Art at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and in an important show with Alphonse Mucha at the Jeu de Paume in Paris. A retrospective of his work took place at the Galerie S.V.U. Mánes in Prague in 1946. That same year Kupka participated in the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles in Paris, where he continued to exhibit regularly until his death. During the early 1950s he gained general recognition and had several solo shows in New York. Kupka died in Puteaux in 1957. Major retrospectives were held at the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris in 1958 and at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1975.