Frantisek Kupka (1871-1957)

This drawing is a preparatory study for the oil painting Peinture Abstraite, 1930-1932, now in the Národní Gallery, Prague. In the latter painting, Kupka celebrates his enthusiasm for the foundation of the group known as Abstraction Création, of which he was part alongside Auguste Herbin, Theo Van Doesburg, Jean Hélion, Hans Arp, Albert Gleizes, Léon Tutundjian and Georges Valmier. Kupka described that his fellow artists 'claimed in an extraordinary way that one should not paint anything from reality, nor should one be representing something; one should make de l'art pur' (Kupka, in a letter to J. Waldes, dated 9 June 1931).