Show Girl

This vision of a showgirl is from František Kupka's early figurative period, when he was influenced by Symbolism and Art Nouveau. The dramatic lighting and brilliant costume seen here evoke the gas-lit stages and demi-monde glamour of café-concerts and other Parisian entertainment venues at the turn of the twentieth century. As a young artist in Prague and Vienna, Kupka was influenced by the religious art of the German Romantic painters known as the Nazarenes. Later, his interest in Symbolism led him to experiment with color theory and abstraction in painting, a style he maintained for the rest of his career.

This pastel is part of an important donation by Oberlin College alumnus Frederic Pryor and his wife, Zora, of fifty-three paintings, drawings, and prints by the artist, with subjects as varied as figural, historical, and genre scenes, landscapes, studies of the female form, portraits, and abstract works, covering almost Kupka's entire career. The Pryors also donated over 130 books and publications, both by and about Kupka, including books illustrated by the artist, magazines with his drawings, and over twenty-five exhibition catalogues of Kupka's works to the Oberlin College library. Such a variety of materials regarding the artist makes Oberlin an important center of research on Kupka and early twentieth-century Czech art.