Kupkovo Tryskání II was sold at auction for the equivalent of 230.8 million CZK

London - For £7,551,600 (230.8 million CZK), a painting by the Czech artist František Kupka titled Tryskání II (Le Jaillissement II) was auctioned today at Sotheby's in London. The amount significantly exceeded expectations: The auction house originally anticipated that the abstract painting from the 1920s would sell for £1.5 to £2.5 million (45.8 to 76 million CZK). According to available data, Tryskání II became the most expensive work of Czech origin sold at an international auction in recent decades.

The paintings with intersecting diagonals resembling grand cathedral architecture titled Tryskání were created in 1922 and 1923, with a total of three made. One is part of the collection of the National Gallery in Prague.

Art market expert Jan Skřivánek told ČTK today that this is an exceptional sum for a work by a Czech author. "If I found the sale of Kupka's painting last year in Prague, when his Divertimento II sold for 90.24 million CZK, to be overvalued, in light of today's auction, I see the price as justified," stated Skřivánek. Divertimento II was until now the most expensive work by Kupka sold both in the Czech Republic and abroad. The final price of Tryskání II could still increase, as certain additional fees have not been accounted for.

Sotheby's offered Tryskání II in 2004, expecting a price of £250,000 to £350,000 (7.6 to 10.6 million CZK) without the auction commission, but the painting did not sell at that time. Back then, Kupka's paintings were being sold in the Czech Republic for about four times less than today.

In today's auction for Tryskání II, three bidders fought over the phone, all calling from London, and according to Skřivánek, there might have been a Czech connection among them.

Kupka's painting is, according to available data, the most expensive work of Czech provenance sold at an international auction in recent decades. Previously, this title belonged to the painting of the Throne of the Virgin Mary with Child, attributed to the workshop of the Master of the Vyšší Brod Altarpiece, which sold on November 30, 2019, at an auction in Dijon for an equivalent of 158 million CZK. The National Gallery in Prague was also interested in the work, but it was ultimately acquired by a much more renowned art institution - the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

František Kupka's abstract paintings (1871 to 1957) have long occupied the top spots in the Czech auction ranking. Currently, there are four in the top ten, three places belong to Oskar Kokoschka, and one spot each is taken by Toyen, Mikuláš Medek, and Josef Šíma.

Kupka was among the pioneers of abstract painting, contributing to the emergence of a new artistic movement - Orphism, which relates painting to other arts like music or poetry. The subject matter in his compositions recedes into the background, with the composition of colors and lines being decisive.