"Disks of Newton"

Frantisek Kupka (1871-1957) was a Czech painter who offered up work in the abstract and cubism realm leading up to the Futurism movement.

Kupka constructed Disks of Newton (right) during the times about 1912. As stated in the title, the artist is referencing to Sir Isaac Newton's discovery of the spectrum of colors given off from the sun. His theory basically stated that there are certain colors within the spectrum and when any two colors are mixed, a third new color is produced. Even further, when all the colors are mixed, white is produced. This piece, Kupka treads away from the stereotypical early forms of cubism as they are more monochromatic and here the colors are very bright and changing. Kupka presents Disks of Newton almost as a testimonial demonstrating Newton with a circular painting with many extravagant colors and blendings. The movement of the piece is portrayed to be coming out at the viewer in a three dimensional sense.





After viewing this piece, it sparked my interest of 3D film as our culture has revived the art of 3D cinema quite substantially. It is almost a guarantee that at any given time one can go to the movies and a 3D picture will be an option. Without the 3D glasses and manipulations, Kupka accomplished the third dimension on canvas which is very impressive. Interestingly, after reading about 3D film, it appears that the art was first patented in the late 1890's. This is interesting because this is also around the time of cubism and they both seem to have a couple of parallels. For instance, they both play with more than one perspective and time. This is basically the definition of cubism. Makes one wonder how this painting and some other like The Accordionist (Picasso) would appear through the lenses of modern 3D glasses.

          3-D...

 

 Cubism?