Frantisek Kupka
Czech, 1871-1957
Dynamism
INV-1861
Frantisek Kupka
Czech, 1871-1957c. 1912
prints and drawingpastel
Date
c. 1912
Medium
Charcoal and white pastel, with stumping, with touches of black pastel, on gray laid paper with fibrous inclusions
Dimensions
30.6 × 33.6 cm (12 1/16 × 13 1/4 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Gift of Dorothy Braude Edinburg to the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection
Kupka wished to explore the laws of the universe and the underlying cosmic order, which he imagined as a “kaleidoscope of changing light, color forms and space.” This drawing is part of a series exploring these ideas; dark shapes explode and unfold on the page while the debris from this universal force appears to float on the surface. As the eye attempts to make sense of the dense network created between the layered charcoal lines and delicate white shapes, one gets the sense of peering into the unknown.
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