Kupka is viewed as one of the fathers of abstract art and can be mentioned in one breath with Kandinsky, Mondrian, and Balla. And yet the artist from Prague followed a rather unconventional path to abstraction. Beginnings in Symbolism led him, following Cubist experiments, to esoteric positions before a method wholly founded in painterly thinking asserted itself. Today his varied work still stimulates painterly positions whose intentions focus on existential dimensions beyond the immanent questions of painting.
The works presented show the development of Kupka´s abstract oeuvre and at the same time give an insight into the methods with which he pursued his picture finding. Additional works from private collections will be shown, augmenting certain groups of work in his oeuvre. The exhibition was developed together with the Musée National d´Art Moderne, Paris, and taken over by the Fondation de l´Hermitage, Lausanne.