A major exhibition in Prague of the work of the Czech Art Nouveau artist Alfons Mucha is to extend its run up to the end of the year in response to popular demand, the organizers announced on Tuesday.
The approximately 230 works taken from the collection of 4,000 held by the Mucha family will be on view until December 31. They trace the artist’s life through six stages.
Mucha’s paintings, illustrations, posters, drawings and photographs are seen as a high point of the Belle Époque.
“We have attempted to relate Mucha’s life story as Czech, as European and as citizen of the world,” his great-grandson Marcus Mucha, the executive director of the family foundation, said recently during a guided tour.
According to a family legend, the artist, who was born in Ivančice near Brno in 1860 and died in 1939, was able to draw before he could walk. His first breakthrough after studying in Paris came with a contract for the French actor Sarah Bernhardt.
The exhibition in the Waldstein Riding School in Prague’s Lesser Town shows the entire creative process from photographic templates and sketches up to large-scale paintings. Less well-known aspects of his life are revealed, including an interest in mysticism and his work as a Freemason.
Prague is looking ahead to 2026, when new exhibition halls for Mucha’s monumental cycle “Slav Epic” are to be opened. Created by British designer Thomas Heatherwick the entire building will be shaped around the cycle, according to Marcus Mucha. ©dpa
