

PROPERTY FROM A FRENCH PRIVATE COLLECTION
Foltýn’s abstract pictures were first exhibited at the end of 1927 in the Au Sacré du Printemps gallery, a meeting place for artists supported by Michel Seuphor and Paul Dermée, patrons of abstract art. Out of these meetings was born the Cercle et Carré movement, uniting artists whose principal interest was geometric abstraction.
Dated 1927 P/12 it appears that Composition was painted at the time of the 1927 exhibition. It is telling that Foltýn selected the work as the cover of the invitation to his next major exhibition at Galerie Quatre Chemins in 1930. By this time he had become well established in the Parisian art scene. The foreword to the exhibition catalogue was written by the renowned art critic Jean Cassou, and soon after Foltýn took part in the first and only international exhibition of Cercle et Carré at Gallery 23 in Paris alongside figures such as Wassily Kandinsky, Hans Arp and Amédée Ozenfant.
Foltýn became a crucial member of Cercle et Carré and was a key figure in championing abstract art in the Czech Republic upon his return to his home country in the mid 1930s.