Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
world to exhibit abstract paintings, but though his psychedelic paintings were influential in
the 1960s, abstract art was frowned upon by the Communist regime and Kupka was pretty
much ignored by his native country from 1948 to 1989. Works here encompass early Expres-
sionistwatercolourssuchasthe
Study for Water Bathers
(1907),transitionalpastelsincluding
Fauvist Chair
(1910) and more abstract paintings, such as the seminal
Cathedral
and
Study
for Fugue in Two Colours
(both c.1912).
The gallery also displays a good selection of works by the sculptor
Otto Gutfreund
(1889-1927), who started out as an enthusiastic Cubist, producing dynamic, vigorous por-
traits such as
Viki
(1912). After World War I, when he joined the French Foreign Legion but
was interned for three years for insubordination, Gutfreund switched to depicting everyday
folk in bright colour, as in
Trade
and
Lovers
, in a style that prefigures Socialist Realism. His
life was cut short when he drowned while swimming in the Vltava.
