Mucha pioneer of Art Nouveau. ARTE.TV dedicates a documentary to the visionary artist Arte.it

A hastily prepared poster for the Gismonda by Sarah Bernhardt, posted on January 1, 1895 throughout Paris, carries the name Alfons Mucha from the great art gallery represented by the street in those years, to success. But we will have to wait a little longer before we see the fire of passion of the visionary Czech sculptor and poster artist reach modern man.
Until November 13 on ARTE tv – the streaming platform dedicated to quality, online and free culture, information and entertainment – the documentary Alfonso Mucha. He was a pioneer of Art Nouveau, broadcast on the occasion of the exhibition dedicated to the artist at Palazzo Bonaparte in Rome, it offers an unmissable journey into the life, intuitions and works of the master, a symphony rich in harmony and music. The production, directed by Roman Vavra, pays tribute to a forerunner of the contemporary image industry, whose illustrations, elevated to true icons, were for decades more famous than his name.
Mucha, pioneer of the Art Nouveau movement, has transcended eras and continents through his work, inspired by Byzantine art. In the 1960s, his creations even became objects of worship by the hippie movement.

Alfonso Mucha. Pioneer of Art Nouveau | Thanks to ARTE.TV

“For me, painting, church and music are so closely linked that I don’t know whether I love the church for its music or whether I love music for the mysteries of which it is the guide” he declared.
Through the voice of his son, the Czech journalist Jiří Mucha, who died in 1991, we follow the visionary artist in the places dear to him, up to the first floor of his Parisian house at 6 Rue du Val de Grâce, where Mucha experienced his happiest Parisian period. After landing in the Ville Lumière, he achieved success thanks to the poster with the image of the actress Gismonda Sarah Bernhardt, and also represented the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the World’s Fair.

We follow him in 1900, when, at the height of his artistic career, the Austrian government chose him as chief architect and decorator of the Pavilion of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The most important movement was Art Nouveau, a symbol of freedom and modernity. We discover his work devoted to the Slavic epic, a pictorial cycle in which he will occupy himself “until his last breath”, and we still find him charming and gray in his relationship with Maruska Chytilová, whom he marries in Prague in 1906.

Alfonso Mucha. Pioneer of Art Nouveau | Thanks to ARTE.TV

But the documentary also focuses on the man Mucha, who was also a BBC journalist and war reporter, a friend of the Lumière brothers and who, we discover, is also famous for his legendary inability to recognize people, to the point of being misreceived while he was once in New York.
When an exhibition dedicated to him was held in London in 1963, Mucha was already famous, a protagonist of American salons together with his wife.
By using interviews and historical images of the painter, the documentary provides an illuminating insight into the artistic legacy that Mucha has left behind, partly thanks to the contribution of his son. An art that reflects the spirit of an era and helps us rediscover the poster designer and undisputed artist of Art Nouveau.