The exhibition, devoted to works of one of the most famous representatives of Art Nouveau Alphonse Mucha, has opened recently in the Vienna Gallery Belvedere

Gallery Belvedere in Vienna has recently opened the first in the city scale exhibition devoted to works of one of the most famous representatives of Art Nouveau Alphonse Mucha (Alfons Mucha, 1860-1939). The exhibition will reflect a variety of aspects of its activities. Visitors can see a large canvas, pastels, drawings and photographs showing impressive skill which he acquired while studying in Vienna, Munich and Paris.

The exhibition, which includes about 250 works from the author's public and private collections, housed in the Lower Belvedere and is divided into several parts. The first room is devoted to artists' biographies, as well as his photographs, and early works. Last book and magazine presented illustrations, historical paintings and watercolors.

From 1885 to 1887 Mucha studied art history at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts, then moved to Paris and enrolled at the Academy and Academy Julien Kolarossi. But later, due to lack of money, the artist was forced to leave classes and earn a living manufacturing posters, pictures, calendars, invitations, business cards, etc. Fame came to him in 1894 because of his playbill for the presentation of «Zhismonda» with the famous Sarah Bernhardt. In a few years, Mucha was one of the most popular designers of posters in the style of Al Nouveau. Freed from the historic pathetics, it has developed its own style. The exhibition in the Vienna gallery can be seen as the posters themselves, as well as preliminary sketches for them.

Alphonse Mucha able to work in various genres, in addition to decorative works of the plan he has created many masterly drawings and pastels, which are presented in one of the exhibition halls. Many of them are devoted to historical events and religious subjects.

A very important stage in the life of the artist began work on the job for the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900. Initially he worked on the creation of so-called. «Pavilion Man», but the organizers thought it impossible and rejected it (the exhibition includes preparatory sketches). Then, the Austro-Hungarian Government has instructed the artist to make pavilion of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and he is well equipped for this task. Mucha has created a huge monumental frieze: a canvas on an area of more than 250 square meters, the author has depicted the history of the two Ottoman provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which in 1878 were under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In the Belvedere Gallery for the first time reconstructed the central hall of the pavilion, where a cloth and place it, which, fortunately, survived and came to our days.

Another exhibition is dedicated to collaboration with Alphonse Mucha Fouque jeweler Georges (Georges Fouquet), for which he not only designed jewelry, but also decorated his shop, which is a shining example of the interior in the style of Al Nouveau. Visitors can examine jewelry of that time, designs for the furniture store and their actual realization.

Several years Alphonse Mucha lived in the United States, where the painted portraits, illustrated journals, lectured in New York, Philadelphia and Chicago. But in 1910 he returned to Prague, which started work on a cycle «Slavic epic», which is considered the most important of his works. For 18 years, from 1910 to 1928, he created 20 monumental paintings on the history of Slavic peoples. Some of them are represented at the exhibition of previously unpublished sketches and drawings. After graduating from the First World War, the artist has clearance stamps, banknotes and medals for the new State of Czechoslovakia.

On display are sketches and reproductions of stained glass windows for the cathedral of St. Vitus in Prague.

Exhibition Gallery Belvedere will continue until June 1, and then in slightly modified form of leave for two other museums that have participated in its organization. From June to September it can be visited in Munich at the Art Gallery Cultural Foundation (Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung), and from September 2009 to January 2010 - in the Fabre Museum (Musee Fabre) in Montpellier.

material produced Catherine Onuchin

Source: artdaily.com , artinvestment.ru