Alphonse Mucha Exhbition

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The exhibition, ALPHONSE MUCHA: MASTER OF ART NOUVEAU – Selections from the Dhawan Collection will be presented at Forsyth Galleries, Texas A&M University  from September 14 – December 16, 2018. Mucha is most often remembered for the prominent role he played in shaping the aesthetics of French Art Nouveau at the turn of the 20th century. The Dhawan Collection, Los Angeles, CA, is one of the finest private collections of Mucha’s work in the United States. The exhibition premiered at The Carnegie Arts Center, Turlock, CA, in the Fall of 2015. Upcoming venues include: The Fullerton Art Center, Fullerton, CA, May, 2017; The Citadelle Art Center, Canadian, TX, June 2017; The Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, OH, September, 2017; and the Forsyth Gallery, Texas A&M, College Station, TX, September 2018.

Presented in the exhibition are 75 works by Mucha including, rare original lithographs and proofs, an oil painting, drawings, a pastel, and books, posters, portfolios and ephemera. The exhibition is curated by esteemed art historian, Gabriel Weisberg, Professor of Art History, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, who has provided an essay for the exhibition catalogue. The Mucha Foundation has also provided a biographical text about Mucha and a short essay, along with photographs in support of the exhibition.

“In 1900, when the widely distributed French periodical Art et Décoration published a long and exhaustive article on the work of Alphonse Mucha (1860–1939), the Czechoslovakian artist was at the pinnacle of his creative powers. Varied, expressive, and seductive, his works were given the name “the Mucha style”; later the style was identified as “Art Nouveau,” writes  Curator Gabriel Weisberg, Professor of Art History, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, in his essay.

Mucha’s successes in many fields of creativity are revealed in the exhibition, ALPHONSE MUCHA: MASTER OF ART NOUVEAU, dedicated to the broad range of his work. Organized in three sections–posters, book and journal illustrations, and The Slav Epic–

the exhibition focuses on the ways Mucha revitalized an interest in these media. It provides an opportunity to see how the different media, clients and objectives reflect the time period in which Mucha lived and worked.

“Mucha’s ability to understand the major creative themes of the day, to use them in the most original ways possible, and to create works of art that remain seductive for future generations, is truly his great triumph,” writes Weisberg. With objects drawn from the extensive Dhawan Collection, and with the publication of this catalogue, the exhibition provides a new, original way of seeing one of the most prolific creators of fin-de-siècle imagery.

The exhibition and museum tour were organized by Landau Traveling Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA. Over the past fifty years they have presented more than 800 exhibitions at museums throughout the United States and around the world. ALPHONSE MUCHA: MASTER OF ART NOUVEAU will tour continue to tour museums worldwide through 2018.

 

Landau Traveling Exhibitions’ website for the exhibition: www.a-r-t.com/mucha

 

Museum Hours:

Closed: Mondays and University Holidays

Tuesday – Friday: 9 AM – 8 PM

Saturday – Sunday: 12 PM – 6 PM

 

Our sincere thanks to the Mucha Foundation, Prague, for their support of this project.

This program made possible in part through Hotel Tax Revenue funded from the City of College Station through the Arts Council of Brazos Valley.