Once mocked Kupka is today the star of auctions and an ornament of galleries

Prague - Painter František Kupka did not receive much recognition during his time. He started as a realist, but later worked his way to abstraction and became one of the founders of modern art. His works began to gain wider recognition in France from the 1960s, and in the last two decades, they have seen a surge in interest. Kupka's paintings break auction records and are proudly displayed in world galleries, such as the Paris Centre Pompidou and New York's MoMA.
    A selection of the most famous or most expensively sold works by Kupka (1871 to 1957), whose painting titled Tvar modré will be auctioned in Prague on April 18 with a record starting price of 45 million crowns:

    SHAPE OF BLUE (1913) - The painting was one of the best pieces from the collection of industrialist Jindřich Waldes, who was a friend and patron of Kupka. In 1939, it was confiscated by the Nazis, and in the 1990s, it was returned to Waldes's heirs through restitution, who are now selling it. Kupka worked on the piece for several years, returning to it and modifying it. Shape of Blue was first presented in Paris in 1924. If sold, it will become the most expensive work by Kupka sold at auction in the world.
    MOVEMENT (1913 to 1919) - An abstract work from the collection of American couple Hascoe was sold last year in London at auction for a record 35.5 million crowns (excluding fees). The wealthy family had been collecting Czech art since the 1990s; the deceased owners purchased Movement at an auction in New York in 1999.
    ÉLÉVATION (HEIGHTS) IV. (1938) - This oil painting from a cycle of ten paintings known as Series C, created by Kupka between 1935 and 1946, became the most expensive work sold at auction in the Czech Republic in 2007 for 22.1 million crowns. The painter, inspired by architecture, owned the piece until his death in 1957. Another Kupka work, Collapse of Verticals, which was sold in 2009 for 22 million crowns, closely follows Élévation. Kupka is represented four times in the top ten most expensive works at Czech auctions.
    AMORFA - TWO-COLORED FUGUE (1912) - This pivotal work by Kupka is considered one of the first abstract paintings in the world. The painter exhibited it in 1912 at the Paris Autumn Salon, where it caused outrage among critics and the general public. Fugue is housed in the collections of the National Gallery in Prague at the Trade Fair Palace, which boasts a representative collection of Kupka's works thanks to donations and acquisitions from the restituted Waldes collection. The state purchased eight of the painter's works in the 1990s, including the two most expensive pieces for 25 million crowns each.
    A current highlight is that a motif from the Two-Colored Fugue, estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of crowns, will appear on the clothing of the Czech delegation at this year's Olympic Games in London.
    AMORFA - WARM CHROMATICS (1911 to 1912) - It was first exhibited together with the Two-Colored Fugue. Both pieces heralded a series of other works in which Kupka sought a distinctive parallel between musical and pictorial creation. The painting is currently on display at the Kampa Museum, which, thanks to the Jan and Meda Mládek Foundation, has become one of the largest private collections of Kupka's works.
    CATHEDRAL (1912 to 1913) - It is one of the most beautiful paintings in the Kampa Museum. Strips of colored areas resemble the stained glass of temples; for inspiration, Kupka traveled, among other places, to the famous Chartres.
    GIRL WITH A CLIP (1912) - According to the official version, the painting was created from a photograph that Waldes had taken on a boat sailing to the USA. The model, who placed a button to her eye, was supposedly American Elisabeth Coyens. The oil painting created by Kupka was later artistically interpreted by graphic artist Vojtěch Preissig, leading to the creation of the logo for Waldes's factory Koh-i-noor in Vršovice. In 2010, the Constitutional Court decided that the painting would not be returned to the heirs. The disputed property had been nationalized immediately after the war under one of Beneš's decrees.