Kupka´s Dog is an oil painting on pressed wood panel by Tania Rivilis, created in 2021. The work measures 80×80 cm.
I reinterpreted Frantisek Kupka’s self portrait, which is painted with absolutely magical vibrant yellow tones. In my expressive style I use gradients, connections, voids and tense colour fields. In this painting I also wanted to depict Kupka’s love for Orphism, a branch of cubism that abstracts bright colours, the musicality of rhythms through the interpenetration of primary colours and the intersection of surfaces. That’s why the yellow colour field vanishes into the man’s garments, becoming part of his attitude.
The dark fields of purple and black show the rhythm too. Although the portrait looks static, the rhythm of colours shows the storm of emotions inside the subject.
Tania then spoke about the special bond we form with our pets and how she goes about capturing the relationships between others in her work.
I’m amazed by the visual similarities between humans and their pets. Pets become our alter egos and we have indescribable bonds. Many of my favourite artists convey these bonds in their artworks, such as Valentin Serov’s Count Felix Sumarokov-Elston. Or Lucian Freud and his great love of dogs, and Kupka often elevated animals to the dignity of a person.
I make portraits in which there is always a reference to the other, because only in another’s gaze can the subject be assembled into a coherent image. Otherwise, a portrait would be an empty shell. I try to capture moments in which a person in relation to another person or creature discovers again and again the possibility of becoming whole.