Josef Šíma, sometimes referred to as Joseph Sima (1891 - 1971), was a Czech painter, one of the most important figures in European modern painting. Due to his almost 50-year stay in Paris, he is sometimes considered a French painter. Šíma was close to surrealism, but focused more on the symbolic dimension of the painting, in the late period he came up with light abstract paintings, sometimes compared to the paintings of Mark Rothko.