Lot 163

Jiří Kolář (1914 - 2002) A TRIBUTE TO KUPKA

The values ​​of the avant-garde, experiment and the gradual escape from figurative painting to abstract art - all this fascinated Jiří Kolář on František Kupka and he was a great source of inspiration for him. As a pioneer of abstract art, Kupka was the first author of non-figurative painting in the world ever exhibited. Kolář's language, with the help of textual fragments arranged in tension of horizontality and verticality, creates a unique way of honoring the artist, who invented a new language of modern art and became a competitor of the creator in the spirit of Kolář. In a monumentally conceived collage, Kolář emphasizes Kupka's linear and disc-shaped forms, which he laid the foundation for in the first decade of the 20th century, but developed them especially in the 1920s and 1930s until he led them to absolute minimalism. Artist, author of collages and assemblages, poet and translator, one of the most influential personalities of Czech post-war culture and one of the most famous Czech artists in the world. He trained as a carpenter, changed various jobs (worker, waiter, newspaper editor). Since 1943, he has devoted himself exclusively to authorial work. In the early 1960s, he moved from poetry to fine art. Co-founder of Group 42, member of UB and Křižovatka Group. Signatory of Charter 77, he left for Paris in 1980 and returned to Prague only in 1999. In Paris he was a co-publisher of Revue K. His works are represented, for example, in NG Prague, Center G. Pompidou and Galerie Maeght-Lelong Paris, Museum of Modern Art New York, in Cologne, Madrid and elsewhere. He often exhibited individually and collectively, winning a number of awards.