Page 41 - Studio International - August 1965
P. 41

is an act of genius.  Because,  without doubt,  historical  two  paintings  classified  under  the  same  title  of
                                  circumstances accompany it, maybe there is in this act   Amorpha,  the one:  Fugue  a  deux couleurs,  the other:
                                  what  one  calls  causes  and  reasons,  maybe  it  accom­  Chromatique chaude.
                                  plished  itself  in  certain  conditions,  external  and   These works  are  essentially  singular.  and this  singu­
                                  personal.  It no less remains that the act has something  larity,  in  conjunction  with  the  singularities  emerging
                                  of suddenness,  of contradiction and  of  newness  and  more  or  less  at  the  same  epoch  in  other  parts  will
                                  that  in  this  sense  one  can  say  that  it  calls  on  what  become,  today,  the  current  language  of  painting.  But
                                  one  must  describe  as  genius.                   we must linger in the moment  of the singularity.
                                   One  must,  to  understand  it,  place  oneself  in  the   This  is  a  response  primarily  to  a  violent  and  total
                                  atmosphere  of  the  Paris  of  1894  when  this  young  need of creation.  To create!  It is the title of a text that
                                  Czech has  just  arrived  and  in  the  same  time to place   Kupka  will  publish  a  little  later  in  an  avant  garde

          White  on Blue and Red 1924
          72 x 80 cm.
          Galerie Louis Carre.  Paris























































                                  oneself  in  the  most  intimate  point  of  the  conscience  journal, La  Vie des Lettres,  and where he will  proclaim
                                  of  the  man.  He  has,  in  his  first  years,  in  Prague  and  this need that he felt awakening in him and which he
                                  Vienna been subject to the influence of the Jugendsti/.   will  try  and  analyse.  Because,  if an  inventor  invents,
                                  In Paris, he appears as one of the very first painters of  it is because he has felt the irresistible need  to  invent.
                                  these young foreigners  who,  coming from all parts of   Maybe  this  impulse  towards  invention  was  then
                                  the  world,  will  participate.  in  such  energetic  fashion  general,  and the whole epoch tended towards revolu­
                                  in  one  of  the  most  magnificent  renewals  of  the  tionising  the plastic  arts.  But,  beyond  the revolutions
                                  universal history of arts.  He lives in  Montmartre,  later,  which  then  express  themselves  - fauvism,  cubism,
                                  in 1906, in Puteaux and enters in the legendary epoch  expressionism, soon dadaism and surrealism -the most
                                  of the  School of  Paris.  In 1 911 he shows at the Salon  essentially  and  integrally  absolutely  revolutionary  is
                                  d'Automne, a canvas called Plans parcouleurs  (Planes  assuredly the one which manifests its exigence by some
                                  by  colour) ;  the  following  year another with  the  same  isolated  inventors,  Kandinsky,  Delaunay,  Picabia,
                                  title at the lndependants.  and at the  Salon d'Automne   Kupka,  those,  who  beyond  such  revolutions,  make
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