(1921) Untitled
František Kupka

Popis

1921, etching, 23×15 cm, 59×46 cm including frame, signed right bottom in the print and right bottom by stamp Kupka

Provenance: Auction house Prague

The highest price achieved in auction for Kupka´s oil on canvas – 78 million CZK in the year 2019, Galerie Kodl, Prague
The highest price achieved in auction for Kupka´s graphic – 720 thousand CZK in the year 2018, auction house Sýpka, Prague

This Kupka´s etching is an illustrative documentation of the author´s transition to abstraction. Kupka the painter in the foundation firmly grounded in the Art Nouveau, examines analytically the world around himself and he is based on the Law of Nature, natural processes, where everything is being created in the organic process without the touch of a human hand. Kupka wants, on one hand, to break loose from the rational thinking and to listen to a higher “voice”, on the other hand, he wants to discover certain universal rules, that he could follow in his creation. He embarks on the journey to the new reality, in which he gradually gets rid of all the redundant formal elements.
This almost abstract graphic captures the record of Kupka´s thought process; it is based on the morphology of nature, but he tries where it is possible to take it, visually to the edge of readability.
The graphic folio is not typical for Kupka´s artwork – it is an important experiment in the many authors´ attempts to find the true abstract form. Kupka was the stubborn seeker of possible ways and he never went just one direction, as it is visible also on the etching – on the edge between lyrical and philosophical visuality. Similar motifs can be found in other graphics, for instance, the Organization of graphic motives or Elevation.

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