I love Mucha! I think I could have spent all day in the gallery and there are so many things I want to say here, but let me start with my first reactions to his unique style.
His intricately detailed lithographs are absolutely stunning especially considering the limited technology he had when they were created. The fact that each work had to be individually carved out of one or two stones and then carefully painted on was incredibly interesting to me, and made me appreciate their apparent beauty even more.
The next thing that I really enjoyed about Mucha was his evident love for the Czech people in all of his work. He incorporated a lot of old pagan gods and symbols of the country throughout his posters, incorporating the history of his country, and all leading up to his great ‘Slav epic.’ I found his promotion of nationalism to be quite admirable and very necessary for the rebuilding of the physical Czech nation, as well as the hearts and minds of the people.
Beyond this, the other thing that made me appreciate his work even more was his dedication to not only his own people, but to all people. One of the little bios posted about him in the gallery had the quote from him on this topic: “we must live in the hope that all mankind will become closer.” Even though it was said that his commercial work was so successful, this message came across to me in all of his amazing work. The unique aspect of poster art, allowed the masses to see his work everywhere, not just those who could afford to go to galleries or to the theater and this set the stage for Mucha to create a great imprint on the world.
For example, the work “Loterie Narodni jednoty” depicting a young schoolgirl carrying books and pencils, created a great and haunting impression on me. The description written under the poster read that the girl ‘looks accusingly at the viewers demanding from them support both for her education and for ailing cechia,’ and I couldn’t have said it better myself. Mucha used his fame in commercial success to make people pay attention to a greater message, and that is something that is incredibly admirable and humble in a man with such great talent. He could have easily just continued to work on theater posters and portraits of the famous and partied with the wealthy. By going down this path he still would have been remembered for being a great artist, but instead he chose to remind his country all that they should be proud of, and all they should aspire to be, and for that he will also be remembered as a great person, in addition to an amazing artist.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment