František Kupka

This information is for Cindy, regarding the "The Yellow Scale" - a painting by František Kupka that is in the permanent collection at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. Following is the description that accompanies the painting.

František Kupka
Czechoslovakian, 1871 ~ 1957
The Yellow Scale
c. 1907
Oil on Canvas

Gift of Audrey Jones Beck

In addition to serving as a self-portrait, this painting explores the expressive power and complexity of the color yellow.
The intense hues combine with František Kupka's confident gaze, the book in one hand, cigarette in the other, to convey a strong sense of the artist's personality--Kupka was an eccentric, sensual man with a lifelong fascination for spiritualism and the occult.
Though he never completely abandoned naturalistic representation, Kupka was one of the pioneers in developing abstract painting early in the 20th century.