Amorpha, Fugue in Two Colours

Amorpha: Fugue in Two Colours is the result of Kupka’s long-term transition from specific to non-object painting. At the beginning, the artist tried to capture the motion of a ball with which his stepdaughter Andrée played, yet he ended up depicting the abstract ideas of motion with two colours – red and blue. The name fugue may refer to Bach’s music as well as to the original meaning of the word (flight) once again referring to motion. The historical significance of Amorpha: Fugue in Two Colours lies in the fact that it is the first abstract painting (along with Amorpha: Warm Chromatics) to have been presented to the public in the Autumn Salon (Salon d'Automne) in Paris in 1912.