“VIENNA AROUND 1900. KLIMT – MOSER – GERSTL – KOKOSCHKA”

 Leopold Museum, Vienna
 18th January – 10th June 2018


2018 is the year of the Leopold Museum: as Vienna celebrates Viennese Modernism and its protagonists Klimt, Schiele and Moser, the Leopold Museum traces an arc from the movement’s beginnings with Anton Romako to the Schiele jubilee exhibition, via Klimt, Moser, Gerstl, Kokoschka and the photographers Moriz Nähr and Madame d’Ora all the way to Brus and Palme, while the exhibition “WOW! The Heidi Horten Collection” unites 100 years of art history from Klimt to Hirst.

A century ago, the year 1918 saw the passing of the protagonists of Viennese Modernism Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and Koloman Moser who shaped the period of Vienna around 1900. Seeing as these artists and their milieu provide important emphases within the collection of the Leopold Museum, they will dominate the museum’s 2018 exhibition program. “Next year, we will be able to offer the most important exhibitions throughout this anniversary year of Viennese Modernism,” Wipplinger announced proudly.

The commemorative year kicks off with the exhibition “VIENNA AROUND 1900. KLIMT – MOSER – GERSTL – KOKOSCHKA” (18^th January – 10^th June 2018), which will present works from Viennese Jugendstil to Austrian Expressionism by these protagonists. Along with eminent chief works by Gustav Klimt, including  



Death and Life (1911/15)



 and the lakescape created in 1900 On Lake Attersee, 



  Venus in the Grotto by Koloman Moser

the presentation also features Kolo Moser’s paintings as well as outstanding examples of design from around 1900, including furniture, artisan craftwork and posters, created by this “artist of a thousand talents” and co-founder of the Wiener Werkstätte. 

The radical works by the proto-Expressionist Richard Gerstl will once again be on display at the Leopold Museum following their tour with stops in Frankfurt and New York. 

 


Featuring his trend-setting Self-Portrait, One Hand Touching the Face created in 1918/19, which is a symbol of Austrian art embarking on a new era, Oskar Kokoschka, the enfant terrible of the Viennese art scene of the early 20^th century, completes the tetrad of heroes in the only permanent Kokoschka hall in Austria. 

EGON SCHIELE, Seated Male Nude (Self-Portrait), 1910 © Leopold Museum, Vienna | Photo: Leopold Museum, Vienna

 Director Wipplinger is also delighted to present the jubilee exhibition "EGON SCHIELE” (3^rd March – 4^th November 2018) commemorating the 100^th anniversary of the artist’s death, which he will curate together with Diethard Leopold. Seeing as the Leopold Museum is home to the largest and most eminent collection of works by Egon Schiele, a special exhibition will be dedicated to the artist for this anniversary: unique in its juxtaposition of paintings and works on paper – which for conservational reasons will be shown in three separate stages – the presentation will touch upon the most important themes in the life and work of the artist and, according to Wipplinger, “promises to be the ultimate Schiele jubilee exhibition”.



Egon Schiele, self-portrait with lampion fruits, 1912

"SCHIELE – BRUS – PALME”, three enfants terribles of their respective generations, will broaden the conventional concept of art with their works in this exhibition (3^rd March – 11^th June 2018). Egon Schiele’s unsparing exploration of the individual, of the self, provided a necessary but unsettling prelude to the 20^th century ravaged by two world wars. In the 1960s, Günter Brus revisited the body as a major theme in art, with Thomas Palme continuing Schiele and Brus’ legacy with his graphic works one generation later. The exhibition will provide for a fictitious – and in the case of Brus and Palme also a direct – dialogue, transcending temporal, spatial and social borders. The exhibition will be curated by the head of the Graz Bruseum Roman Grabner.

The beginning of Modernism will be highlighted with the exhibition “ANTON ROMAKO” (22^nd March – 18^th June 2018). The retrospective curated by Marianne Hussl-Hörmann showcases eminent works from the oeuvre of this unusual painter. Since Rudolf Leopold recognized Anton Romako’s importance as one of the great pioneers of Modernism very early on, the Leopold Museum as well as the Leopold Private Collection house one of the most comprehensive collections of works by the artist today. 

GUSTAV KLIMT, The Bride, 1917/18 (unfinished) © Klimt-Foundation, Vienna

In the presentation “GUSTAV KLIMT” (22^nd June – 4^th November 2018), the artist, who also passed away in 1918, will be honored with a special exhibition commemorating the 100^th anniversary of his death and retracing his evolution from an exponent of late Historicism towards the most eminent representative of Viennese Jugendstil. Along with works from the holdings of the Leopold Museum and the Leopold family’s private collection, the presentation will feature exhibits from the Klimt Foundation, works given to the museum as a permanent loan by a Klimt descendant as well as select international loans. 

Director Wipplinger emphasized the presentation of Klimt’s Symbolist painting The Bride curated by Sandra Tretter (Klimt Foundation). The group of figures rendered in the painting will be shown for the first time in connection with drawings and sketches of the depicted protagonists, most of which also hail from the collection of the Klimt Foundation.



... Gustav Klimt, Johanna Staude, 1917-1918



  Gustav Klimt, Nuda Veritas, 1899

Modern Times: American Art 1910-1950

Philadelphia Museum of Art
April 18 —September 3, 2018

American artists in the first half of the twentieth century created a bold new artistic language to capture the essence of modern life. This wide-ranging exhibition reframes examples of American Modernism in the collection, with an emphasis on painting and sculpture, along with select examples of prints, drawings, photographs, decorative arts, and costumes. It features works by internationally acclaimed artists from the circle of the photographer and gallerist Alfred Stieglitz, such as Georgia O’Keeffe, Marsden Hartley, and Arthur Dove, along with equally significant if lesser-known artists who contributed to the art of their day.

The exhibition also explores modernity from a less formal angle, focusing on work by artists who were drawn to depict modern amusements and moments of daily life, from burlesque performances and beach scenes by Reginald Marsh and George Bellows to vignettes of people quietly occupying public spaces by Ben Shahn and Jacob Lawrence. The newest acquisitions to be included are two paintings by Horace Pippin and the singular work, Road and Trees by Edward Hopper.



The Museum will publish a catalogue in conjunction with the exhibition, co-published by Yale University.

Spring Sale at Bendel's, 1921, by Florine Stettheimer, American, 1871 – 1944. Oil on canvas, 50 x 40 inches (127 x 101.6 cm). Philadelphia Museum of Art: Gift of Miss Ettie Stettheimer

Pertaining to Yachts and Yachting, 1922, by Charles Sheeler, American, 1883 – 1965. Oil on canvas, 20 x 24 1/16 inches (50.8 x 61.1 cm). Philadelphia Museum of Art: Bequest of Margaretta S. Hinchman, 1955-96-9.

Neighbors, 1951, by Charles Sheeler, American, 1883 – 1965. Oil on canvas, 18 x 15 inches (45.7 x 38.1 cm); Frame: 26 1/2 × 23 1/2 inches (67.3 × 59.7 cm). Philadelphia Museum of Art: Gift of C. K. Williams, II, 2015-8-2.

 Portrait of James Baldwin, 1945, by Beauford Delaney, American (active Paris), 1901 – 1979. Oil on canvas, 22 x 18 inches (55.9 x 45.7 cm). Philadelphia Museum of Art: 125th Anniversary Acquisition. Purchased with funds contributed by The Daniel W. Dietrich Foundation in memory of Joseph C. Bailey and with a grant from The Judith Rothschild Foundation, 1998-3-1.

 Something on the Eight Ball, 1953-1954, by Stuart Davis, American, 1892 - 1964. Oil on canvas, 56 × 45 inches (142.2 × 114.3 cm). Philadelphia Museum of Art: Purchased with the Adele Haas Turner and Beatrice Pastorius Turner Memorial Fund, 1954-30-1. © Estate of Stuart Davis / Licensed by VAGA, New York.

View from Ship, c. 1932, by Jan Matulka, American (born Czech Republic), 1890 - 1972. Oil on canvas, 36 x 30 inches (91.4 x 76.2 cm). Philadelphia Museum of Art: Gift of C. K. Williams, II, 2015-8-1. © The Estate of Jan Matulka.

Words and Music of Two Hemispheres Francis Criss, American (born England), 1901 - 1973 © Estate of Francis Criss

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 Red and Orange Streak, 1919, by Georgia O'Keeffe, American, 1887 - 1986. Oil on canvas, 27 x 23 inches. Philadelphia Museum of Art: Bequest of Georgia O'Keeffe for the Alfred Stieglitz Collection

An exhibition in Philadelphia, from April 18 to Sept. 3, 2018, explores the creative responses of American artists to the rapid pace of change during the early twentieth century and the new visual language that emerged.


This spring, the Philadelphia Museum of Art will present an exhibition exploring the creative responses of American artists to the rapid pace of change that occurred in this country during the early decades of the twentieth century. Modern Times: American Art 1910–1950 examines the new and dynamic visual language that emerged during this period and had a dramatic impact on painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, architecture, and the decorative arts. These developments were shaped by the dizzying transformations then occurring in every aspect of life, from the advent of the automobile and moving pictures to the rapid growth of American cities and the wrenching economic change brought on by the advent of the Great Depression after a decade of unprecedented prosperity.

The White Way, c. 1926, by John Sloan, American, 1871 - 1951. Oil on canvas, 30 1/8 x 32 1/4 inches. Philadelphia Museum of Art: Gift of Mrs. Cyrus McCormick, 1946-10-2

The exhibition will feature important works by those artists—Georgia O’Keeffe, Marsden Hartley, Arthur Dove, and John Marin, among them—championed by the great photographer and gallerist Alfred Stieglitz, as well as many other notable figures of this period. Modern Times will be drawn almost entirely from the Museum’s renowned collection, especially the gift from the Stieglitz Collection that it received in the late 1940s, and will contain some 160 works, several of which will be on view for the first time.

Burlesque, c. 1922, by Thomas Hart Benton, American, 1889 - 1975. Tempera on panel, 9 1/2x 12 1/2 inches. Philadelphia Museum of Art: Bequest of Edward Suckle, M.D., 2002-91-1. © T. H. Benton and R. P. Benton Testamentary Trusts / UMB Bank Trustee / Licensed by VAGA, New York

Timothy Rub, the Museum’s George D. Widener Director and Chief Executive Officer, stated: “America’s embrace of modern life—its perils as well as its promise—in the early twentieth century was expressed most clearly in the arts. The work of this period still feels fresh and of the moment. This exhibition provides us with a welcome opportunity to reassess the Museum’s exceptionally rich holdings of modern American art and how we may display them to full advantage in the future when the Museum completes its expansion under its Master Plan. It also holds the promise of many surprises and discoveries for our visitors.”



 Painting No.4 (A Black Horse) |  by Marsden Hartley

While the Museum has presented a number of exhibitions devoted to this subject over the years, Modern Times is the largest and most comprehensive since it presented the collection of Alfred Stieglitz in 1944. The exhibition opens with the achievements of some of the leading figures of “The Eight,” including John Sloan and George Bellows, who recorded the changing urban scene with a gritty realism as horse carts gave way to motor vehicles on city streets.

The exhibition emphasizes those artists—among them Charles Demuth, Morton Schamberg, Charles Sheeler, Benton Spruance, and Paul Strand—who responded to the Armory Show of 1913 and the influence of the European avant garde by seeking to give modernism an authentic American voice. Offering a broader perspective on American art of this period, the exhibition explores the achievements of important African American figures, such as Aaron Douglas, William Edmondson, Horace Pippin and Dox Thrash. It also looks at cross-currents within the arts, including contemporary fashion and design, and work by female artists such as O’Keeffe, Florine Stettheimer, Frances Simpson Stevens, Kay Sage, and Dorothea Tanning.

One section of the exhibition takes a close look at the many artists who explored in their work the abstract qualities of rhythm, light, and sound. Some of their aesthetic strategies were employed to create dynamic still lifes, enlivening what was commonly considered a static genre. Another section explores the expressive use of color, focusing on Arthur Beecher Carles, Henry Breckenridge, and Henry McCarter who stretched the boundaries of artistic tradition by relieving color of its purely descriptive function. These three artists, each of whom lived and worked in Philadelphia, reflected this city’s active engagement with progressive trends in American art. In fact, the significant role that Philadelphia played in the history of American modernism is echoed throughout the exhibition. It includes works by Philadelphia-born artists such as Man Ray and Alexander Calder who became prominent abroad, where they were closely aligned with modern movements in Europe, and others who remained in the city in which the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts provided a center of energy and a place to teach.

Landscape painting was, likewise, revolutionized by the artists of this generation, who found in this traditional genre a sustained source of inspiration. The adaptation of the modernist vision to one of the most enduring themes in American art can be seen most dramatically in works by O’Keeffe, Hartley, and Arthur Dove. Others, such as Sheeler, took the stark, yet impressive geometry of the new industrial landscape as a point of departure. The exhibition also examines another familiar subject, the human figure, which proved to be of abiding interest to the artists of this generation. Included in this rich and fascinating section is a group of portraits by artists such as Milton Avery, Beauford Delaney, and John Graham.

Jessica Todd Smith, The Susan Gray Detweiler Curator of American Art, and Manager, Center for American Art, who organized the exhibition, said: “Modernism changed the way people saw the world around them. Artists pushed their work in new directions, embracing abstraction, while retaining connections to artistic traditions. This exhibition focuses on interrelationships among works of art rather than a single linear narrative. In fact, it gives voice to multiple narratives because the evolution and experimentation in the art of this period is especially fluid. This stylistic pluralism, the beautiful chaos of innovation, was a hallmark of the modern American movement.”

Publication



The exhibition is accompanied by a new publication, American Modernism: Highlights from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, by Jessica Todd Smith. It is published by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in association with Yale University Press ( 272 pp.) The title of the essay, “Seeing Takes Time” is inspired by a quotation of Georgia O’Keeffe: “Nobody sees a flower—really—it is so small—we haven’t time—and to see takes time .
. . “
With 120 color and 10 black-and-white illustrations, American Modernism is the first book to showcase this outstanding aspect of the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which was one of the first major museums in this country to acquire what we now call American Modernism. It tells a story that is unique to the Museum, examining the collection’s development since the 1920s and the role that the city of Philadelphia played in promoting modernism in the first half of the twentieth century. While previous publications have focused on European and American modernism, this one considers what it meant to be American and to be modern, exploring how these artists challenged convention without abandoning recognizable elements from the world around them.

In addition to focusing on internationally acclaimed artists from the circle of photographer and gallerist Alfred Stieglitz, including Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Charles Sheeler, Smith also considers those who contributed significantly to the art of the United States during their day but have been left outside the mainstream of art history, whether due to their race, gender, or social standing.

The Getaway, 1939, by Horace Pippin, American, 1888 - 1946. Oil on canvas, 24 5/8 x 36 inches. Philadelphia Museum of Art: Bequest of Daniel W. Dietrich II, 2016-3-3

Portrait of John with Hat, 1935, by Alice Neel, American, 1900 - 1984. Oil on canvas, 23 1/2 x 21 1/2 inches. Philadelphia Museum of Art: Gift of the estate of Arthur M. Bullowa, 1993-119-2

Of a Great City, 1923, by Wharton H. Esherick, American, 1887 - 1970. Wood engraving, image: 9 15/16 x 6 5/16 inches, sheet: 11 7/16 x 7 1/2 inches. Philadelphia Museum of Art: Purchased with the Lola Downin Peck Fund from the Carl and Laura Zigrosser Collection, 1979-12-11

 

Chinese Music, 1923, by Arthur Dove, American, 1880 -1946. Oil and metallic paint on panel, 21 11/16 x 18 1/8 inches. Philadelphia Museum of Art: The Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1949-18-2

Towards Impressionism: Landscape Painting from Corot to Monet

Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Rollins College Winter Park, FL
January 20 to April 8, 2018

Frye Art Museum 
May 12–August 5, 2018

Henri-Joseph Harpignies (French 1819-1916) De Saint-Privé à Bléneau: souvenir de l'Yonne, (View from Saint-Privé towards Bléneau: Memory of the Yonne), 1885, Oil on canvas, © Musée des Beaux-Arts, Reims, Legacy Henry Vasnier. Photo: C. Devleeschauwer

This exhibition is curated by Suzanne Greub, founder and director, Art Centre Basel, in collaboration with the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Reims and the city of Reims, France.

Towards Impressionism marks the first time that an exhibition drawn exclusively from the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Reims, France—home to one of the largest collections of French 19th-century landscape painting —will travel to the United States. The Cornell Fine Arts Museum is the first of only two venues nationwide to host this extraordinary exhibition and the only stop on the East Coast.

The exhibition traces the revolutionary evolution of landscape painting in France from Romanticism to Impressionism, telling the story of how Impressionism came to be and of its lasting power.

“We are thrilled by the opportunity to experience the brilliance, revolutionary brushwork, and nuanced tonal palette—in a word, the beauty—of these paintings firsthand," notes CFAM director, Ena Heller. “As a teaching museum, we are equally thankful for the curatorial framework that places the schools of Barbizon and Honfleur within the wider arc of French landscape painting and traces both their debt to Romanticism and the legacy they handed on to Impressionism.”

 

Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926), Les rochers de Belle-Île (Rocks at Belle-Île), 1886, Oil on canvas, © Musée des Beaux-Arts, Reims, Legacy Henry Vasnier. Photo: C. Devleeschauwer

Landscape painters active in the first half of the 19th century found their major inspiration in Dutch and English landscape art. Many were active roughly from 1830 until 1855 in the village of Barbizon, on the edge of the Fontainebleau forest.

These artists like Théodore Rousseau, Jean-François Millet, Narcisse Virgile Díaz de la Peña, Charles Jacque, Constant Troyon, Jules Dupré, and others rejected urban life and burgeoning industrialization, seeking instead untouched nature in its original form. They were fascinated by the mysteries of the forest and the rural tradition later described by George Sand in her pastoral novels.

Théodore Rousseau (1812-1867) was a friend of the novelist and acted as the leader of the so-called Barbizon School. Rousseau rebelled against official art teaching, adopting thickly applied paint in contrast to the smooth surfaces seen in academic paintings.

One of the most significant painters and a frequent visitor to the forest of Fontainebleau was Camille Corot (1796-1875). Reims is proud to possess the second largest collection of his work after the Louvre: 27 authenticated works, 17 of which will be displayed in this exhibition.



 The Medici Fountain (after 1845) will remind visitors of Corot’s first trip to Italy in 1825. On his arrival in Rome he was immediately dazzled by the southern light that was to become one of the principal subjects of his work. Corot never forgot these formative years, idealizing the landscapes he had studied in the open air as he re-created them later in his studio.

Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot. Monte Cavo, ca. 1825–28. Oil on cardboard. © Musée des Beaux-Arts, Reims, Legacy Paul Jamot Photo: C. Devleeschauwer.

Later works herald Impressionism, reminding the visitor that Corot was interested in the ever-changing flow of time and atmospheric effects, painting the same motif at different times of day.

 Eugène Boudin (French, 1824-1898), La marée montante (baie de Saint-Valéry), Rising Tide (bay of Saint-Valéry), 1888, Oil on canvas, © Musée des Beaux-Arts, Reims, Legacy Henry Vasnier. Photo: C. Devleeschauwer

 
Honfleur, on the Normandy coast at the mouth of the Seine, also became a magnet for artists from about 1850 onward. Gathering at the Ferme Saint-Siméon to exchange ideas and support each other, these painters included Eugène Isabey, Paul Huet, Eugène Boudin, Constant Troyon, Jean-François Millet, Camille Corot, Gustave Courbet, Claude Monet, Frédéric Bazille, Johan Barthold Jongkind, Adolphe-Félix Cals, and Louis-Alexandre Dubourg.

Eugène Boudin, (French, 1824-1898), Sur la plage de Trouville, undated, Oil on canvas, 24 x 27 3/4 in., Musée des Beaux-arts de Reims, Reims. 

Eugène Boudin (1824-1898) was one of the first artists to paint en plein air in Honfleur, encouraging Claude Monet, 16 years his junior, to follow suit. Boudin drew his inspiration from Normandy seascapes and coastal scenes; nobody could capture the endless horizon and the wide expanse of sky in quite the same way. His friend Camille Corot, who purchased several of Boudin's pastels, dubbed him the roi des ciels (King of Skies)—praise indeed from an artist who himself ascribed such importance to representing the sky and the atmosphere. Gustave Courbet also succumbed to the magic of the lightness and transparency of a Boudin sky. Eugène Boudin can thus be cast as the immediate forerunner of the Impressionists.

Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot. Le coup de vent (The Gust of Wind), ca. 1865–70. Oil on canvas. © Musée des Beaux-Arts, Reims, Legacy Jules Warnier-David Photo: C. Devleeschauwer. 

Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, ‘Le lac, effet de nuit’, ca. 1869

 

Narcisse Virgile Díaz de la Peña. Landscape at Barbizon, n.d. Oil on canvas. Frye Art Museum, Founding Collection, Gift of Charles and Emma Frye, 1952.035. Photo: Spike Mafford. 

The exhibition presented at the Cornell Fine Arts Museum will display 45 paintings in total by several School of Barbizon painters active after 1830 and by the artists’ circle founded by Eugène Boudin in Honfleur around 1850, as well as from the Musée des Beaux-Arts' collection of Impressionists, including works by Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Camille Pissarro.

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Catalogue

 

This beautifully illustrated volume follows the artistic forebears that led up to the works of Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, by way of pastel palettes, loose brushwork, ordinary figures, and natural landscapes.

Emil Nolde (1867-1956) National Gallery of Ireland

National Gallery of Ireland

14 February - 10 June 2018 

Emil Nolde (1867-1956), 'Two Women in a Garden', 1915. Copyright the artist's estate

The German Expressionist artist Emil Nolde was a prolific painter and printmaker. This exhibition, a collaboration between the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and the National Gallery of Ireland, will present a bold and colourful survey of his paintings, drawings, etchings, and woodcuts. Included will be scenes of Berlin café culture, calligraphic views of the River Elbe, brilliant studies made on travels to the South Seas, as well as portraits, flower paintings, and imaginative depictions of fantastical creatures in both oils and watercolours.

 Coastal Landscape Emil Nolde - Date unknown Nolde Foundation Seebüll - Neukirchen (Germany) Painting

This exhibition will be the first to showcase the work of this important artist in Ireland for over fifty years.

Old Gardener Emil Nolde 1938-1945 Nolde Foundation Seebüll - Neukirchen ( Germany) Painting

All works are on loan from the Nolde Foundation Seebüll, Germany.



Curator: Janet McLean and Sean Rainbird, National Gallery of Ireland, with Keith Hartley, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.

Martyrdom I (left panel of triptych) Emil Nolde - 1921 Nolde Foundation Seebüll - Neukirchen (Germany) Painting - oil on canvas

 

Emil Nolde, Monastery on the Etna Mount, 1905 © Nolde Foundation Seebüll

 

Emil Nolde, Tropical Sun, 1914 © Nolde Foundation Seebüll.

Alphonse Mucha: Master of Art Nouveau

The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, NY

January 14 to March 18, 2018

An exhibition featuring the works of the artist credited with inspiring the Art Nouveau movement opened Sunday, January 14, at The Hyde Collection.



Alphonse Mucha: Master of Art Nouveau includes more than seventy works drawn from the Dhawan Collection of Los Angeles, California, one of the most significant private collections of Mucha’s work in the United States.

 

L'Estampe Moderne 1897

The exhibition examines how Mucha’s work helped shape the aesthetics of French Art Nouveau at the turn of the century. Art Nouveau, or New Art, describes a style in architecture, and visual and decorative arts that flourished from the 1890s through 1910. It emphasized the beauty of natural forms in everyday life. Art Nouveau featured a sinuous or “whiplash” line, flattened space, and botanical shapes and patterns.



“Mucha’s early work is centered on the epitome of beauty,” said Jonathan Canning, director of curatorial affairs and programming at The Hyde Collection. “With use of subtle color schemes, lavish scrolling text, and exquisite women, he defined the Art Nouveau movement.”

 

Many of the works in the exhibition feature beautiful women, dramatic curving lines, flowers, and plants. Mucha worked across many media and those are revealed in the exhibition, which includes lithographs, drawings, paintings, books, and advertisements. Highlights include four versions of a poster Mucha created for actress Sarah Bernhardt in 1894 — an assignment largely believed to have launched Mucha’s prolific career —

 

and two posters advertising Job cigarette papers from 1896 and 1898.

The Slavs in their Original Homeland ,  Oil and tempera on canvas 

"The Celebration of Svantovit"

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Mucha (July 24, 1860-July 14, 1939), the most successful decorative graphic artist of his day, considered his life’s masterpiece to be Slav Epic, twenty large-scale paintings depicting the history of the Czech lands and people. The latter part of Mucha’s career is also included in the exhibition, with samples of his work after returning to his homeland in the early part of the twentieth century, including bank notes and one of the Slav Epic panels.

New York Times article about the Slav Epic

“Later in his career, Mucha wanted to separate himself from his commercial art, and instead devoted himself to making art that celebrated the history of his people,” Canning said. “He was inspired by the traditional dress, the folklore, and landscapes, and proud of the Czech culture.”

About Alphonse Mucha

Alphonse Maria Mucha was born in Ivančice, a rural town in Moravia (now part of the Czech Republic) at the height of the Czech National Revival. He grew up with a strong belief in national heritage and an independent Czech nation. Those beliefs would shape his artwork in the latter part of his career.

Musical ability earned young Mucha a scholarship to the Gymnázium Slovanské secondary school in Brno. Poor academic performance led to his being asked to leave. He vowed to earn a living as an artist and applied to Prague Academy of Art, but was rejected. Undeterred, he worked as a court clerk while designing sets for local theaters and magazines. He signed on as an apprentice scenery painter at a theater in Vienna, where he took art classes.

Mucha was commissioned to paint murals for wealthy landowners, one of whom became his benefactor and paid for formal art training at Munich’s Academy of Art. By the 1880s, he regularly contributed artwork to magazines. Moving to Paris in 1887, he enrolled in Académie Julian, then Académie Colarossi, both of which encouraged students to meld art and design.

His sponsorship ended, Mucha left art school and worked as an illustrator for magazines and, ultimately, books. His artwork developed a following and was regularly exhibited. He taught drawing out of his studio, classes that became known as Cours Mucha. They were eventually so successful that the artist was asked to teach at the Académie Colarossi and ran a drawing course at James McNeill Whistler’s Académie Carmen.




But his catapult to fame is reported to have happened quite by accident. The young commercial artist was in a print shop in 1894 when iconic French actress Sarah Bernhardt called needing a poster for one of her upcoming shows. The result is the poster Gismonda. Ms. Bernhardt was so moved by Mucha’s work, she signed him on for a six-year contract, during which he created advertisements so beautiful, art lovers searched them out throughout the city, removed them from their posts, and brought them home to hang on their parlor walls.

In the years that followed, posters became an art in their own right, and Art Nouveau flourished. Mucha moved into a new studio, where he was introduced to pastels and sculpture. His works were commissioned by Imprimerie Champenois, one of the most important printers of the period, Job cigarette paper, and other companies seeking advertisements. In 1895, Mucha teamed up with jeweler Georges Fouquet and the pair redefined jewelry design, making aesthetic more important than the monetary value of the materials used.

When Fouquet decided to move his jewelry boutique to the luxurious Rue Royale in Paris, he called on Mucha to design all aspects of his shop — exterior, interior, furniture, light fittings, and showcases. Mucha conceived the shop as a complete work of art inspired by the natural world.
After the turn of the century, Mucha traveled to the United States several times to secure funding for Slav Epic. He painted portraits, taught classes, and befriended President Theodore Roosevelt.

He ultimately secured funding for the project from Chicago industrialist Charles Richard Crane, heir to R.T. Crane Brass and Bell Foundry. In 1910, he returned to Bohemia and spent the next two decades working on the twenty-panel series. Some of the completed panels were exhibited in the United States, attracting massive crowds to the Art Institute of Chicago and the Brooklyn Museum in 1920-21.

Mucha focused on social and cultural projects for the new Czechoslovakia, including stamps, bank notes, murals, and cultural projects until his death in 1939.

Complete illustrated checklist