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MUCHA MEETS CHINA: A Breathtakingly Beautiful Mucha Exhibition in Shanghai
Exhibition: Mucha Date: 2019.03.30-07.21 Venue: Pearl Art Museum, Shanghai, China. The text below is the excerpt of the book Alphonse Mucha, written by Patrick Bade and Victoria Charles, published by Parkstone International. This article is the continuation of part 1, which can be read here. The luxurious theatricality of Central European Baroque with its lush curvilinear and nature-inspired decoration undoubtedly coloured his imagination and inspired a taste for “smells and bells” and religious paraphernalia that remained with him throughout his life. At the height of his fame, his studio was described as being like a “secular chapel… screens placed here and there, that could well be confessionals; and then incense burning all…
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The Art of the Shoe
“You never truly know someone until you have walked a mile in his shoes.” — Anonymous
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Shelley’s Art Musings – Spotlight on Alphonse Mucha
There is something decadently elegant about the Art Nouveau movement. Removed from the academic and classical styles which were so readily seen at the turn of the century, this style had a freedom and flow which had an underlying statement of love and beauty. The curvaceous forms and looping lines of the style accentuate the pieces and lent itself to not just retinal artwork, but home design and architectural displays. Alphonse Mucha, was the father of this movement, with the style being called ‘Le Style Mucha’ when it first came into the public domain, he became famous in this field almost by accident. Mucha hated the term ‘Art Nouveau’ as…
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Art Nouveau
"One can argue the merits and the future of the new decorative art movement, but there is no denying it currently reigns triumphant over all Europe and in every English-speaking country outside Europe; all it needs now is management, and this is up to men of taste.” (Jean Lahor, Paris 1901)
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Where Mucha’s Magic Began: The Gismonda-poster
At thirty-four, and almost half of his life, Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939) seemed to be kind of an unfortunate lad. Imagine yourself, for instance, going to Vienna because you finally found a job, and, shortly after you arrive, your workplace burns down! Mucha made it to Paris though, and one fine Christmas day in 1894, a woman stepped into his life and changed everything. Doesn’t that give hope? Okay, he did not quite win the heart of that woman – but that would have been expecting too much given who she was: Sarah “G.O.A.T.” Bernhardt. (You don’t know Sarah Bernhardt? Click me, I’m concise information and a photo!) She needed a…
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Alphonse Mucha : l’Art Nouveau est arrivé !
Si la simple évocation du nom de Mucha ne vous donne pas envie de siroter un verre d’absinthe en terrasse d’un bistrot à Montmartre par un bel après-midi de printemps, c’est que vous ne connaissez sûrement pas le monsieur. Alphonse Mucha est né en République tchèque en 1860, déjà doté d’un solide instinct artistique puisqu’il se mit au dessin dès le plus jeune âge. Comme tous les enfants me direz-vous, mais de la part du fils d’un huissier de justice, c’est tout de même pas mal. Refusé par l’Académie des Beaux-Arts de Prague (quel don pour dénicher les talents !), le voici qui arrive à Paris en 1887 pour rejoindre l’Académie…
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1000 Chefs-d’œuvre des arts décoratifs : du Trésor de Toutânkhamon à l’Empire State Building
Il est courant d’amalgamer les arts décoratifs avec les mouvements Art Déco et Art Nouveau. Ces derniers, s’ils sont associés aux arts décoratifs, proviennent d’esthétiques apparues à la fin du XIXe siècle. Les arts décoratifs, en revanche, existent depuis des générations. Les arts décoratifs correspondent aux arts qui embellissent les objets de la vie quotidienne, les objets dits fonctionnels. Ils s’opposent ainsi aux Beaux-Arts puisque la finalité de ces objets n’est pas d’être admirée dans un musée. À l’origine, ils ont un usage bien précis. Les disciplines de l’artisanat – l’orfèvrerie, l’ébénisterie, la tapisserie, la céramique d’art – sont sollicitées par les arts décoratifs. Les artistes façonnent des objets en…
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Bitten by a dragonfly!
Émile Gallé was a leading artist of the Art noveau style and was able to put his love for insects, animals and flowers into vases, porcelain and furniture, to capture their beauty into usable objects, creating pieces of art at the same time. Starting from his childhood, Gallé developed an almost ecstatic love for mother nature. One of his favourite designs seemed to be the dragonfly, an insect so tiny and delicate, but it can also be a danger to your life…. Gallé, born 1846 in Nancy, started studying zoology, botanics and minerology, because he drew inspiration from observing nature while walking through the woods. Who could have anticipated, that…
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Émile Gallé, Chantre de la Nature
Il n’y a pas de chef-d’œuvre sans artiste, tout comme il n’y a pas d’Art appliqué sans Gallé. Né dans une famille d’intellectuels protestants en 1846, l’existence hyper créative de l’artiste à de quoi surprendre les biographes désenchantés. À la fois ébéniste et industriel, maître verrier et théoricien, l’artiste et homme d’affaire français cultiva ses cinquante-huit années avec passions et élégance, semant à travers le monde des œuvres d’art et des pensées révolutionnaires qui changèrent le regard du monde artistique. On pourrait se demander à quelle source Émile Gallé puise toute cette énergie ; à quoi il vous répondrait : « Ma racine est au fond des bois. » À…
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In Love … With Myself
Online profiles are essentially shameless self-promotion – things you like, things you do, endless photos of yourself, etc. However, I find when my skinny friends post too many photos of themselves in swimsuits, or newly-engaged friends post endless photos of rings and partners, and my married friends post hundreds of photos of their new babies, I start to feel badly about myself. That’s not to say that I’m not doing cool things or that I want children (Any. Time. Soon.), but sites like Facebook have opened many doors to jealousy, self-loathing, and endless comparison of ourselves to others. Stop it! You know who would have been shamelessly good…
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