Bringing The Dayton Art Institute’s 2017 special exhibition season to a close are the Art Nouveau designs of Alphonse Mucha, who lived from July 24, 1860 to July 14, 1939.
Appropriately titled, “Alphonse Mucha: Master of Art Nouveau,” this exhibition has been called “eagerly anticipated” and has been running since Sept. 16 and will continue to do so all the way through Dec. 31. To add, this exhibition cannot be found in any other venue and is a limited engagement only at the Dayton Art Institute.
The blurb on the official page states that “Drawn from one of the finest private collections of Mucha’s work in the United States, this exhibition features 75 works by the celebrated Czech master, whose varied, expressive, and seductive imagery helped form and later shape the aesthetics of French Art Nouveau at the turn of the 20th century. Taking inspiration from the unruly aspects of the natural world, Art Nouveau influenced art and architecture, especially in graphic work and illustration, with its sinuous lines and whiplash curves. Through rare, original lithographs, proofs and drawings, as well as books, illustrations, portfolios and ephemera, this exhibition examines the broad range of Mucha’s work, largely created during the 1890s, at a time when the emphasis was on creating a new art fit for the new century”.
Museum members and children under the age of six will be admitted into the exhibition for free. Youths from ages 7-17 will be let in for $6. Groups of 10 or more, active military, students that are older than 18 with IDs and seniors will be admitted for $11. For adults, the price is $14.
Along with the exhibition are programs that are related. On Thursday Oct. 19 from 4-5 p.m. is a program titled “Behind The Scenes: Alphonse Mucha” which will tell visitors how they staged this exhibition. It will be held in the Renaissance Auditorium with the prices being $5 for members and $10 for non-members.
Another program is a lecture all about Alphonse Mucha and his work that will be run by Wright State University professor Karla Huebner, Ph.D. This lecture will take place in the Renaissance Auditorium as well for the same prices on Sat. Nov. 4 from 3 – 4 p.m.
However in spite of its popularity nowadays, Mucha’s work was considered to be outdated around the time he passed away. His son, author Jiří Mucha, devoted much of his life to writing about his father and trying to bring attention to the artwork that had been overlooked at the time. Unfortunately, authorities in his home country weren’t interested and stored away Mucha’s “The Slav Epic” for 25 years before it was shown in the town Moravský Krumlov. This led to a Mucha museum being opened in Prague, which was managed by his grandson John Mucha.
Mucha’s work has experienced periodic revivals in interest among the artistic crowd. One of the stronger revivals took place soon after he died in the 1960s when his distinctive style (and Art Nouveau in general) landed his works in the public eye once again.
Erika Brandenburg
Reporter