Frantisek Kupka (Opočno, East Bohemia, September 23, 1871 - Puteaux, France, 24 June 1957) was a Czech painter and graphic artist considered one of the pioneers and co-founder of the early stages of abstract art and cubism Orphic (Orphism). Kupka's abstract works emerged from a basis of realism, but later evolved into pure abstract art.

Frantisek Kupka was born in Opočno, eastern Bohemia (now Czech Republic). From 1889 to 1892, studied at the Art Academy in Prague. During this period he painted historical and patriotic themes. Subsequently entered into Bildenden the Akademie der Künste in Vienna, Austria, where he concentrated on symbolic and allegorical subjects. He exhibited at the Kunstverein, Vienna, in 1894. His involvement with theosophy and Eastern philosophy dates from this period. Priavera for the year 1896, Kupka had settled in Paris, where he attended the Académie Julian briefly and then studied with Jean-Pierre Laurens at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Kupka worked as an illustrator of books and posters during these early years in Paris, and was known for his satirical drawings for newspapers and magazines. In 1906, he settled in Puteaux, near Paris, and that same year first exhibited at the Salon d'Automne.

His early works show a concern unusual artistic, often unrealistic, the color and expressive distortion.

Kupka was deeply impressed by the first Futurist Manifesto, published in 1909 in Le Figaro. Kupka's painting of 1909 "Piano Keyboard / Lake" marked a break in his representational style, his work was becoming increasingly abstract around 1910-1911, reflecting his theories of movement, color, and the relationship between music and painting (Orphism).

From 1911 to 1912, while the French painter Robert Delaunay, Kupka spent his first completely abstract work, as Amorphous: escape of two colors (1912, Narodni Gallery in Prague), which consists of colored lines and circular shapes arranged in a rhythmic disposition. In 1911, attended meetings of the Puteaux group. The following year he exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants in the Cubist room, unwilling to be identified with any movement.

Creation in the Plastic Arts, Kupka book ended in 1913, was published in Prague in 1923.

Continued to experiment in abstraction, and his artistic work grouped into five categories: circles, vertical, vertical and diagonal triangles and diagonals. In 1931, he was a founding member of Abstraction-Création. In 1936, his work was included in the exhibition "Cubism and Abstract Art (Cubism and Abstract Art) at the MoMA in New York, and in an important show with another great Czech artist, Alphonse Mucha, at the Jeu de Paume in Paris .

A retrospective of his work was held at the Galerie Manes in Prague in 1946. The same year, Kupka exhibited at the Salon des Nouvelles Réalités, where continued to exhibit regularly until his death. During the early years of the fifties, gained general recognition and had several solo exhibitions in New York. However, there was an artist as influential as other abstract movement, so it did not receive the recognition he deserved until after his death.

Between 1919 and 1938 Kupka was financially supported by his good friend, art collector and industrialist Jindřich Waldes who amassed a significant collection of his art. Kupka died in Puteaux, France, 24 June 1957.

Kupka had a strong interest in color theory, around 1910 began to develop their own color wheels, adapting a format that had previously explored Sir Isaac Newton and Hermann von Helmholtz. This work in turn led Kupka to run a series of paintings he called "Disks of Newton (1911-1912). Kupka was interested in releasing the colors of descriptive associations. His work in this area is believed to have influenced other artists such as Robert Delaunay.