Lot description
THIS LOT CANNOT BE AUCTIONED ONLINE. oil on canvas, 49 x 73 cm, signed lower left: Kupka Provenance: – collection Louis Carré, after 1951 In 1951, the well-known gallerist Louis Carré bought the painting directly from Frantisek Kupka. In the same year, aged eighty, Frantisek Kupka concluded his first representation contract with Carré (1897–1977), owner of prominent galleries in both Paris and New York. Kupka was introduced to Carré by painter Jacques Villon (also known as Gaston Duchamp), a neighbour of his from Puteaux. At that time, Louis Carré represented internationally known artists such as Pablo Picasso, Jacques Villon, Alexander Calder, Fernand Léger, André Lanskoy, etc. According to Carré’s grandson, his grandfather then purchased around 50 paintings from Kupka, which he later sold to internationally prominent galleries and museums, e.g. the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art in Tokyo, the Rothschild collection in New York, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza Madrid etc. Louis Carré also sold paintings to Jan and Meda Mladek (who in 1975 acquired two of Kupka’s crucial paintings, Cathedral and The Fair). – collection Pierre Bourut, St.-Germain-en-Laye, Paris – auction Guy Loudmer, Paris, purchased 26. 6. 1980, lot No. 513 – important private foreign collection Exhibited / Literature: – Chefs d’oeuvre de collections privées de Gauguin á Kupka, St.-Germain-en-Laye, Paris, 1967, cat. No. 118, pic. p. 115 – Frank Kupka, Galerie Gmurzynska, Köln, February – April 1981, cat. No. 29, pic. p. 185 – Hommage á Kupka. XXXVIIe salon de Montrouge: Art contemporain, sculpture, dessins, Montrouge, Centre culturel et artistique, 28. 4.–31. 5. 1982, cat. No. 26 – Art et Sport, Mons, Museé des Beaux-Arts de Mons, 1984, cat. No. 4, pic. p. 52 – Frantisek Kupka 1871–1957, ou l’invention d’une abstraction, Paris, Museé d’art moderne de la Ville de Paris, 22. 11. 1989–25. 2. 1990, cat. No. 261, pic. 371 – Frantisek Kupka, Nagoya, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, 18. 3.–8. 5. 1994, Sendai, Migayi Museum of Art, 21. 5.–26. 6. 1994, Tokyo, Setagaya Art Museum, 9. 7.–28. 8. 1994, in catalogue – pic. no. 120, p. 146 – Frantisek Kupka: Die andere Realität, Galerie Gmurzynska, Köln, 28. 4.–15. 7. 1995, p. 168, pic. p. 169 – Kupka – Mucha in Expo 58 ART, Prague, Exhibition hall of Gallery Adolf Loos Apartment and Gallery in Expo 58, 26. 2.–20. 3. 2022 – Karel Srp, Frantisek Kupka: Sujet dans l ́objet (reproduced on the book cover and further pages 106, 107, 108, 109, 112), published by Arbor Vitae, 2018 –Kupka”published by Galerie Alain Le Gaillard and Galerie Le Minotaure, Paris, 2021, reproduced on pages 93, 94, 95 – The painting is listed in Frantisek Kupka ́s Catalogue Raisonné of Oil Paintings, Adolf Loos Apartment and Gallery, Belvedere Vienna, National Gallery in Prague, p. 446, pic. No. 274. The painting is export free. For this lot, the buyers commission has been reduced to 10% including VAT and Resale rights. Those interested in auctioning this painting must agree on the conditions in advance with the auction organizers. This lot cannot be auctioned online.
