Art Nouveau was a bohemian revolution against the uptight previous art world. (Bob Masse)
Assinatura da ExposiçãoCentro Cultural Banco do Brasil Rio de Janeiro
The Afterlife of 'le style Mucha'
In 1963, London’s Victoria and Albert Museum staged a Mucha retrospective, Art Nouveau and Alphonse Mucha, coinciding with a two-part Mucha exhibition mounted at the Grosvenor Gallery and the Arthur Jeffries Gallery in London.
Exhibition Alphonse Mucha: The Legacy of Art Nouveau (2020)Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil Rio de Janeiro
Mucha left the Parisian art scene in 1905 and died in Prague in 1939. By the 1960s, in the midst of the Cold War...
...Mucha’s name had been almost forgotten in Western Europe and his post-Paris work had been obscured by the Iron Curtain.
The Arts – Dance (1899) by Alphonse MuchaCentro Cultural Banco do Brasil Rio de Janeiro
“Alphonse Mucha was one of the greatest linear artists who ever lived.
"He could perceive the forms of women’s breasts with the same clarity that he saw and understood a bird’s wing, or a flower petal, or a huge building, or a small, yet to be proud, tree."
Barry Windsor-Smith
Strangers in Paradise (1996) by Terry MooreCentro Cultural Banco do Brasil Rio de Janeiro
Strangers in Paradise volume 3 #51
Cover art for Strangers in Paradise Volume 3 #51 by Terry Moore
Exhibition Alphonse Mucha: The Legacy of Art Nouveau (2020) by Centro Cultural do Banco do BrasilCentro Cultural Banco do Brasil Rio de Janeiro
"Art Nouveau was a bohemian revolution against the uptight previous art world they had […]
When the hippies started doing it [psychedelic art], they started using the style that they did at the turn of the century in Paris […] This was like a second bohemian revolution."
Bob Masse
David Edward Byrd na Galeria Triton (1971) by David Byrd (USA)Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil Rio de Janeiro
However, London’s unprecedented tribute to this forgotten Czech artist revived an interest in Mucha and the style he had created over 60 years before.
Blues Traveller; Commodore Ballroom (1995) by Bob MasseCentro Cultural Banco do Brasil Rio de Janeiro
The impact of the 1963 exhibitions was immediately felt among young graphic artists in London as well as in San Francisco
At that time, youth-oriented countercultural movements were flourishing there.
The Rolling Stones (1969) by David ByrdCentro Cultural Banco do Brasil Rio de Janeiro
In the environment of emerging psychedelic rock culture, Mucha’s otherworldly images and distinctive linear style inspired artists.
Bola Sete, Country Joe & the Fish, Buffalo Springfield (1966) by Wes WilsonCentro Cultural Banco do Brasil Rio de Janeiro
They greatly contributed to their artistic idiom to depict a metaphysical world and paranormal visions expressed by music.
Jim Kweskin Jug Band; Avalon Ballroom (1966) by Stanley Mouse & Alton KelleyCentro Cultural Banco do Brasil Rio de Janeiro
Stanley Mouse & Alton Kelley; (USA)
Jim Kweskin Jug Band; Avalon Ballroom Oct 7–8, 1966 | Offset lithograph
Artwork by Stanley Mouse Alton Kelley. © 1966, 1984, 1994 Rhino Entertainment Company. Used with permission. All rights reserved. www.familydog.com
RAINN (2002) by Bob MasseCentro Cultural Banco do Brasil Rio de Janeiro
Also, the resurrected Mucha Style became an influence on new generations of comic artists and illustrators across the world.
The influence of Mucha's style endures to this day.
