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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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LES COCOTTES DE LA BELLE ÉPOQUE
Après la grande dépression de la fin des années 1880-90, le nouveau siècle ne pouvait être autre que sublime. L’air parisien est un concentré de cocottes, de folies, de fêtes, d’arts, de luxe presque ridicule… L’art de vivre est incarné par la capitale française qui apprête sa tenue, se recoiffe et bombe le torse pour la grande Exposition Universelle de 1900. Dans Gigi, Colette décrit avec merveille cette euphorie luxueuse qui devient presque hystérique : « Mme Alvarez eut un foie gras et six bouteilles de champagne, munificences sur lesquelles tonton Lachaille préleva sa part en s’invitant à diner. Gilberte, un peu grise, raconta pendant le repas les potins de son…
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Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me
As much as elders tell young children to dismiss name-calling or bad words, words possess a stronger meaning than most people care to admit. A photograph may be worth 1,000 words, but can a word not also invite 1,000 ideas or influence 1,000 images? Art is subjective to the viewer’s personal history, and language is supposed to be agreed upon by the general audience, with dictionaries giving precise definitions to every word. But neither Merriam nor Webster can anticipate the insurgence of connotative meaning that can ultimately redefine a word in a specific culture. The importance of language and its relationship to art is currently being examined at the Tate…
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Art from the Land of the Rising Sun
Japan, in comparison with many other countries, is rather small, though it ranks tenth amongst the world’s highest populations. More fascinatingly, it has one of the richest and most eclectic art histories to speak of when considering it on its own. Yes, various countries in Europe do this or that, and Africa has a slew of artistic variety, but we’re just talking one country – 6852 islands, if you really want to talk about how amazing Japan’s universally-acknowledged solidarity is. Continuously infiltrated by other powers (China, Russia, Germany’s money, and the United States), art in Japan has successfully maintained a focused and healthy presence in the art world since the…
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