František Kupka

František Kupka (23 September 1871 – 24 June 1957), also known as Frank Kupka or François Kupka, was a Czech painter and graphic artist. He was a pioneer and co-founder of the early phases of the abstract art movement and Orphic Cubism (Orphism). Kupka's abstract works arose from a base of realism, but later evolved into pure abstract art. Kupka had a strong interest in color theory and freeing colors from descriptive associations (which is thought to have possibly influenced other artists like Robert Delaunay).

He had been a "practicing spiritist medium" in Prague and Vienna before his moving to Paris in 1896. Like Kandinsky, he "found inspiration in Theosophy and the occult, and promoted a subjective-intuitive approach to art." Among the Theosophical sources, Besant and Leadbeater's book Thought-Forms had great influence for him. He was interested in the Theosophical theory of color as well as scientific one. Like Mondrian, Kupka accepted an idea on the fourth dimension "as a supplement" to his Theosophical faith.

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