The exhibition focuses on the early period of creative work of František Kupka (1871–1957) and introduces his figurative oeuvre which has so far been a rather overlooked chapter of work of this important pioneer of abstract art. After moving to Paris in the mid-1890s, Kupka dedicated himself mainly to graphic design and illustrations, which he published in illustrated reviews and satirical magazines.

In the bohemian atmosphere of Montmartre, he soon found himself rightly at the vanguard of local graphic artists who would comment upon the society and criticize it. The most prominent samples of Kupka’s work of that time include the series Money (1902), Religion (1904) and Peace (1904), which he developed for authorial editions of the satirical journal L’Assiette au Beurre, and the monumental illustrator’s work to accompany the multi-volume work by the geographer and anarchohumanist Élisée Reclus L’Homme et la Terre (The Earth and Its Inhabitants; 1905–1908). Several exceptional preparatory drawings from these three series were obtained on loan from the world-renowned Musée d’Orsay in Paris, for which the drawings were purchased in 2001 by the French government from the Waldes collection. The public thus now after many years has the opportunity to view these drawings again in the Czech Republic.