Movement, Style, School or Type of Art:
Art Nouveau
Date and Place of Birth:
July 24, 1860, Ivancice, Moravia (modern Czech Republic)
Life:
Best known for creating Art Nouveau advertising posters, Mucha also tirelessly painted, sculpted, designed (costumes, jewelry, stained glass and interiors) and drafted (pastels and architecture). He is credited as the father of the Parisian Art Nouveau movement; other artists' works from the period show le style Mucha was, indeed, the standard. First denounced by Hitler, Mucha's Slav works were repressed behind the Iron Curtain for decades. His true virtuosity is just now beginning to surface.
Important Works:
- Gismonda (poster), 1895
- Four Seasons (series of decorative panels), 1896
- Nature (sculpture), ca. 1900
- The Slav Epic (series of 20 murals, each 18 x 24 feet), 1909-28
Date and Place of Death:
July 14, 1939, Prague
How To Pronounce "Mucha":
mook·ha
Sources and Further Reading
- Arwas, Victor; et al. Alphonse Mucha: The Spirit of Art Nouveau.
New Haven : Yale University Press, 1998.
- Ellridge, Arthur. Mucha: The Triumph of Art Nouveau.
New York : Stewart, Tabori, and Chang, 1996.
- Mucha, Alphonse. Drawings of Mucha.
Mineola : Dover Publications, 1978.
- Mucha, Alphonse. The Art Nouveau Style Book of Alphonse Mucha.
Mineola : Dover Publications, 1980.
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