If you’re familiar with Alphonse Mucha, it’s probably from the posters he created for the Parisian theatre in the late 19th century – works that came to define the graphic language of art nouveau. But there’s much more to the Czech artist’s career, as showcased in the new Art Gallery of New South Wales retrospective Alphonse Mucha: Spirit of Art Nouveau.
“In some respects, we see [Mucha] only as one of the creators of the art nouveau style, but there’s such a rich legacy he leaves,” says Jackie Dunn, senior curator of exhibitions at AGNSW. “Most people don’t know he committed his later life to the creation of patriotic, often philosophical, works that really contributed to the Czech national revival.”
Drawing on the collection of the Mucha Foundation in Prague, the exhibition spans Mucha’s most famous posters and illustrations, as well as photos and jewellery. It even has an interactive digital element. It’s also a handy entry point to the wider art nouveau movement.
“In French, it just means ‘new art’,” says Dunn. “It was [an umbrella] term for a number of artists who really did want to push against the academic traditions of the 19th century. In Mucha’s case, there was a push at the separation between fine art and the decorative art that people live with.”
This was a democratising impetus: art nouveau pioneers like Mucha thought fine art should be accessible to ordinary people – part of their day-to-day world and not cordoned off in elite institutions. That countercultural drive saw artists move into public art and design– Hector Guimard, for instance, created the original entrances to the Paris Metro – as well as commercial work, like Mucha’s promotional posters.
Here are five key works from the exhibition that trace the wider arc of Mucha’s career.
Mucha’s breakthrough came at age 34 when he was contracted to design the poster for Gismonda, a new play starring world-renowned French actor Sarah Bernhardt. He got the job on Boxing Day and the poster went up in Paris on New Year’s Day.
“He rushes off this incredible design, but it’s such an unusual format,” says Dunn. “It’s long, like a Japanese hanging scroll, and incredibly elaborate, with byzantine, exotic references. It’s effectively all about Bernhardt and her commanding presence. She took him on a six-year contract after that, and it transformed [him] into an absolute celebrity designer in Paris.”
Two years later, Mucha presented his first decorative panels, a quartet representing the four seasons as archetypal female figures. These gorgeous works translate the elaborate artistry of Mucha’s commercial art into a series that isn’t advertising anything at all.
“They’re essentially just beautiful aesthetic objects that people can own for very little money,” says Dunn. “They’re printed with new colour lithography. We’re really seeing the birth of the modern poster, this democratised art form. There’s this idea for Mucha of making art for people, rather than art for museums and galleries. And that becomes such an important stepping stone for him.”
The exhibition’s subtitle – Spirit of Art Nouveau – has a double meaning, subtly referring to Mucha’s growing interest in the mystical and metaphysical. Even when illustrating a popular Christian mantra, the Lord’s Prayer, in extended book form, he tied in more obscure concepts and religious symbols from other cultures.
“We have Mucha experimenting with mediumship, reading various spiritual tomes,” says Dunn. “We see him integrating symbols from the kabbalah and masonic symbols – he becomes a well-known Freemason. He brings all of this into one of the most beautiful artist books ever produced. He presents it at the 1900 Paris Exhibition, where he’s awarded prizes for this spectacular book.”
An ambitious series of 20 oversized paintings, the Slav Epic is considered a national treasure in Prague, where it is now housed. The pieces can’t travel, so new-media artist Andrew Yip has created an immersive digital activation that echoes both the works and their creation – all set to an exclusive score from Sydney musician Gary Daley.
“It’s a history of the Slavic people across the history of Europe,” says Dunn. “He committed to doing that because he was so passionate about his country, which was under the domination of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It’s a way of tapping into Mucha’s aim to unify and liberate the Slavic lands.”
Yoshitaka Amano, The Two Princes (1987)
While not a piece by Mucha himself, The Two Princes by Japanese artist Yoshitaka Amano is included in a section of the exhibition that demonstrates Mucha’s influences and legacy. Inspired by the detailed patterns of Japanese woodblock prints, Mucha’s swirling handiwork later informed Amano’s illustrations for Yoshiki Tanaka’s classic manga series The Heroic Legend of Arslan. This particular work was created almost a full century after Mucha’s 1896 calendar design Zodiac, which inspired it.
“In the interim, we’ve had this rediscovery of Mucha in the 1960s and ’70s,” says Dunn, “through rock posters, covers of Grateful Dead and Yes albums and Jesus Christ Superstar – all of them with direct references to Mucha. Then he’s rediscovered in Japan too. We come full circle in this beautiful cultural exchange.”
Broadsheet is a proud media partner of the Art Gallery of NSW. Alphonse Mucha: Spirit of Art Nouveau is on at AGNSW until September 22, 2024. Tickets are now available.
