The Prague Post - 'Art for everyone': Mucha's masterpiece to find home in Prague, 100 years on

EUR -
AED 4.152353
AFN 80.369899
ALL 98.473717
AMD 441.346329
ANG 2.037499
AOA 1035.543572
ARS 1323.736623
AUD 1.767616
AWG 2.03491
AZN 1.923485
BAM 1.952908
BBD 2.290687
BDT 137.845839
BGN 1.951692
BHD 0.426367
BIF 3374.387324
BMD 1.130506
BND 1.482298
BOB 7.839389
BRL 6.414827
BSD 1.134515
BTN 95.878995
BWP 15.530723
BYN 3.712768
BYR 22157.910267
BZD 2.278905
CAD 1.560239
CDF 3247.942448
CHF 0.935604
CLF 0.027922
CLP 1071.481323
CNY 8.220302
CNH 8.2341
COP 4796.848421
CRC 573.043671
CUC 1.130506
CUP 29.958399
CVE 110.10193
CZK 24.950609
DJF 202.031668
DKK 7.465011
DOP 66.770222
DZD 150.035794
EGP 57.576539
ERN 16.957584
ETB 152.252428
FJD 2.554321
FKP 0.84381
GBP 0.850536
GEL 3.103215
GGP 0.84381
GHS 16.167055
GIP 0.84381
GMD 80.831439
GNF 9826.229229
GTQ 8.73706
GYD 238.077387
HKD 8.769236
HNL 29.441265
HRK 7.537423
HTG 148.218509
HUF 404.49172
IDR 18739.035154
ILS 4.111314
IMP 0.84381
INR 95.645408
IQD 1486.192251
IRR 47608.418476
ISK 145.688108
JEP 0.84381
JMD 179.603198
JOD 0.801754
JPY 162.825564
KES 146.863686
KGS 98.862646
KHR 4541.213825
KMF 491.203857
KPW 1017.412427
KRW 1616.006953
KWD 0.346498
KYD 0.945487
KZT 582.199988
LAK 24528.562646
LBP 101652.045579
LKR 339.615499
LRD 226.903936
LSL 21.125118
LTL 3.338089
LVL 0.683832
LYD 6.192855
MAD 10.515725
MDL 19.474071
MGA 5037.449993
MKD 61.439004
MMK 2373.374199
MNT 4039.612274
MOP 9.064634
MRU 44.892914
MUR 50.963281
MVR 17.420539
MWK 1967.251532
MXN 22.204357
MYR 4.87757
MZN 72.352773
NAD 21.124932
NGN 1817.242257
NIO 41.747983
NOK 11.77815
NPR 153.406114
NZD 1.906236
OMR 0.435457
PAB 1.13452
PEN 4.159739
PGK 4.632078
PHP 63.144955
PKR 318.770265
PLN 4.279098
PYG 9086.582194
QAR 4.135076
RON 4.978069
RSD 117.026674
RUB 92.884341
RWF 1629.75736
SAR 4.240171
SBD 9.452494
SCR 16.15212
SDG 678.866525
SEK 10.946466
SGD 1.48003
SHP 0.8884
SLE 25.763995
SLL 23706.119365
SOS 648.328301
SRD 41.65574
STD 23399.183974
SVC 9.927165
SYP 14698.16681
SZL 21.106366
THB 37.877026
TJS 11.95779
TMT 3.95677
TND 3.369509
TOP 2.647759
TRY 43.521871
TTD 7.684517
TWD 36.279623
TZS 3041.060374
UAH 47.062065
UGX 4155.844844
USD 1.130506
UYU 47.739294
UZS 14673.267654
VES 98.057763
VND 29398.798801
VUV 136.123514
WST 3.129691
XAF 654.975339
XAG 0.035176
XAU 0.000349
XCD 3.055248
XDR 0.814579
XOF 654.989802
XPF 119.331742
YER 276.917357
ZAR 21.080821
ZMK 10175.90214
ZMW 31.567966
ZWL 364.02235
  • CMSD

    -0.0500

    22.3

    -0.22%

  • NGG

    -0.0400

    73

    -0.05%

  • BCC

    -1.2200

    93.28

    -1.31%

  • CMSC

    -0.2300

    22.01

    -1.04%

  • SCS

    -0.0900

    9.92

    -0.91%

  • RBGPF

    63.0000

    63

    +100%

  • JRI

    -0.0200

    12.91

    -0.15%

  • BCE

    0.3300

    22.25

    +1.48%

  • GSK

    0.8800

    39.85

    +2.21%

  • BTI

    0.6900

    43.55

    +1.58%

  • RYCEF

    -0.2500

    10

    -2.5%

  • AZN

    0.0800

    71.79

    +0.11%

  • VOD

    0.1800

    9.76

    +1.84%

  • RELX

    0.8400

    54.63

    +1.54%

  • BP

    -0.6100

    27.46

    -2.22%

  • RIO

    -1.4800

    59.4

    -2.49%

'Art for everyone': Mucha's masterpiece to find home in Prague, 100 years on
'Art for everyone': Mucha's masterpiece to find home in Prague, 100 years on / Photo: Michal Cizek - AFP

'Art for everyone': Mucha's masterpiece to find home in Prague, 100 years on

A new Prague museum dedicated to the Czech Art Nouveau painter Alfons Mucha will offer "art for everyone" when it opens this month, ultimately housing his giant Slav Epic masterpiece after decades in storage, his great-grandson told AFP.

Text size:

A painter, graphic artist and designer, Mucha (1860-1939) gained fame for his floral posters, especially of French actress Sarah Bernhardt, which he made while living in Paris -- and his work later helped inspire the hit Disney film "Frozen", according to his descendant.

The museum in the Baroque Savarin Palace in Prague's UNESCO-listed historic centre will display over 100 works, including paintings, lithographs and sketches, from February 24.

It will also provide a long-sought home for Mucha's grand Slav Epic cycle.

British-born Marcus Mucha, who heads a foundation managing the artist's legacy, told AFP that the museum would offer "art for everyone" in line with his great-grandfather's philosophy.

"He always said: 'I did not want my art to be for the salons of the elite'. He thought of his posters in Paris as making the streets and squares an open-air art gallery for everybody."

Most of the artwork on display comes from the family collection comprising some 4,000 artworks.

The museum will also display four smaller reproductions of his Slav Epic, a cycle of 20 canvases ranging in size from 20 to 50 square metres (215 to 540 square feet).

Mucha spent 18 years on the work depicting moments from the history and mythology of the Slavic peoples.

He finished it in 1928, 10 years after Czechoslovakia became independent following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

The series went on display in Prague, but was quickly placed in depositories and even under a pile of coal when the Nazis invaded in 1939.

- 'Sensitive national treasure' -

The Slav Epic was not displayed again until 1963, at the Moravsky Krumlov castle near Mucha's native town.

It was removed in 2011 as the castle fell into disrepair and reinstalled 10 years later following reconstruction.

The cycle also toured Japan in 2017, drawing 660,000 viewers.

Mucha donated the work to Prague under a contract from 1913 on condition that the city find a suitable place for it. It had failed to do so until now, following a series of disputes.

Describing the Slav Epic as "a sensitive national treasure", Marcus Mucha said the masterpiece will ultimately be showcased in another part of the Savarin Palace, to be designed by acclaimed British architect Thomas Heatherwick.

The cycle will be shown in a "purpose-built space that's made in accordance with how Alfons wanted it displayed," he added.

Until then, he expects to regularly rotate smaller reproductions in one of the museum's three rooms.

"We'll be telling different stories around the Epic, so that when it does move to Prague... the public will be able to enjoy its full complexity," he said.

- Inspiration for others -

Marcus Mucha hopes the new section with the Slav Epic will open by 2028, on the 100th anniversary of completion.

Mucha "fell off the radar" in the West during the Nazi occupation and communism, but he is a constant inspiration for artists worldwide, including Cuban-American comic artist Joe Quesada, known for the Marvel comics, he said.

Working as a Hollywood producer before moving to Prague, Marcus Mucha once got a phone call from Disney Studios asking if he was related to the artist.

"They told me they were using one of his images, Princess Hyacinth in an ice palace, as the jumping-off point for a new animated movie. And that was the first piece of concept art for 'Frozen'," he said.

The Savarin Palace on Prague's fancy shopping Na Prikope street is near the Estates Theatre where Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart conducted the premiere of his opera Don Giovanni in 1787.

"To have my great-grandfather's work here in the heart of historic Prague in such a storied building... If Alfons were here today, as we feel his spirit around us, I think he'd be feeling incredibly proud," Mucha said.

D.Dvorak--TPP