Alphonse Mucha, creator of Art Nouveau – His life & works published in books and popular culture.

Apologies for the delay between posts!

There’s been a lot going on at work.. new job and have been settling into it. But I’m back now and will continue posting on a more regular basis

Ever since I worked at a comic book shop in the early 90′s, I was fascinated by the beautiful and ornate artwork created by Alphonse Mucha. It wasn’t because at the time the comic shop sold Mucha artwork but that his style of work, Art Nouveau, was interpreted by one of my favourite comic book artists, Joe Quesada. Quesada had created some X-Men posters in the style of Art Nouveau and I loved them. Ornate, organic and beautifully detailed I wanted to know more about Mucha and the origins of this art movement. One of the posters is linked in a Tumblr blog further in my post.

It would only ever be a dream to actually own any of his original art but a great way to learn more about his work, his life and his everlasting inspiration to the world is by the books featuring his story.

This isn’t really an art lesson,  as there are plenty of sites devoted to Mucha and his life, but an avenue to the ways you can appreciate his work, learn more about him in detail and study the way he lived his life. There have been many books written over the years devoted to Mucha. The most important of those are the ones that were created by his son Jiri as they provide a very personal and in depth account of his life, right up until his death in 1939. Just in case you wanted to know a little more, here’s a trailer for a great Mucha documentary I need to find:

My Mucha Book Collection

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other ways to enjoy Mucha’s art 

Besides the books, there have been other collectables created so people can enjoy Mucha’s art wherever they are.

Mucha collectible figures from Japan

Japan has had a long lasting interest in his works and one toy company, Kaiyodo, created a series of ‘Museum Figures’ that are 3D recreations of his famous artworks. They are hard to come by now,  and I have found some images which will hopefully help someone out there track these down one day!

 

 

 

Here’s the link to the original owner of the Mucha Museum images.

 

 

 Alphonse Mucha and popular culture

It’s interesting to know that Mucha’s work fell out of fashion until the 1960′s where there was a new generation of people to discover it. It was widely copied, and not often credited to his work but that did change over time.

Today, there are many artists in the world who create artwork based on his influential Art Nouveau movement. Here’s a great tumbler page that collates different people’s works, on lots of different subjects, all featuring the decorative styling of Art Nouveau including one of the Joe Quesada X-Men posters that introduced me to his work. There’s also Doctor Who characters, Marvel comic characters like this Iron Man and of course Star Wars is well represented.

Not all of Mucha’s art is out of reach

If you are interested in owning works by Mucha, there’s some nice ways to own some. In the late 1920′s he created bank notes for his native Czech Republic and they are both beautiful representations of his art and very collectible.

While Mucha never wanted to be remembered only for his Art Nouveau works (which spanned about 10 years) they are the lasting legacy by which people have loved and appreciated his art. I recommend you take the time to explore more of this great man’s work as it helps appreciate it all the more.