(1912) Sounds of the Clock
František Kupka

Popis

Etching on paper (1912), 27,5×22,5 cm, 68×60 cm (including frame),
printed signature in the right lower corner of the print, stamp Kupka in the right lower corner.
Origin: auction house Paris.
Published in the catalogue to exhibition in Museum Het Paleis, Den Haag, 1996 and in the catalogue Retrospective, František Kupka, 1871-1957, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1975
Exhibited at the French Institute Praha, 14.9.-3.11.2016.
The highest price achieved in auction for Kupka´s oil on canvas – 56 million CZK in the year 2012, Adolf Loos Apartment and Gallery, Prague.
The highest price achieved in auction for Kupka´s graphics – 8 thousand USD, Sotheby’s New York.
The highest known price for Kupka´s graphics achieved in gallery sale – 500 thousand CZK in the year 2016, Prague.
Black & white etching without designation, sometimes referred to as the Sounds of Clock, is characteristic by Kupka´s search between depicting form and abstraction. The floral morphology seems to be amplified in animation segments up to geometrical ornaments. It is generally known about Kupka that he, inter alia, followed up phased movement in photographs and film – he mentions chronophotograhs in his texts very often. It is very evident in the abstract paintings – in this study there is a certain breaking point obvious – point where Kupka progressed from partially depictive to abstract. We can see here – with a bit of imagination – phases of the clock pendulum or recording of growth of some pod. This graphic can be classified as one piece from the group of studies which is labelled as Organization of Graphic Motifs in the western publications. It is interesting that contemporary theorists compared Kupka´s analysis of the movement images with the record from a computer and found a significant similarity.
Prints of this graphic we find in the Czech auction houses sporadically, the last time it was offered in the year 2014.

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