.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The present watercolor, Etude pour Amphora, Chromatique Chaude, is a study for the larger painting of the same title done in 1911-12 (see M. Rowell, Frantisek Kupka, A Retrospective, exh. cat., The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1975, p. 178, no 86). Rowell identifies the subject of this painting as the formal elements of a vaulted church interior, which Kupka has recognized into colored, curvilinear planes. Here the artist has eschewed the use of monochromatic color seen in other paintings he did in early 1911m in favor of kaleidoscopic patterns of brilliant color to capture the illusion of light filling a vast interior space.
By 1912 Kupka's emphasis shifted from perceived objects to a vision of restructured cosmic space, which he expressed in his series of 'mobiles graphiques' (op. cit., p. 198). In the present drawing, Etude pour 'Localisations de mobile graphiques,' stacked waves and lines describe motion and rhythmic forces of a world beyond human perception.
By 1912 Kupka's emphasis shifted from perceived objects to a vision of restructured cosmic space, which he expressed in his series of 'mobiles graphiques' (op. cit., p. 198). In the present drawing, Etude pour 'Localisations de mobile graphiques,' stacked waves and lines describe motion and rhythmic forces of a world beyond human perception.