PHILOSOPHY

Mucha interior decoration at Georges Fouquet in Paris.

ased on precepts akin to William Morris' Arts and Crafts movement in England, Art Nouveau was to eradicate the dividing line between art and audience.  Everything could be and should be art.  Burne-Jones designed wallpaper, Hector Guimard designed metro stations, and Alphonse Mucha designed stage sets and advertising.  Each country had its own name for the new approach and artists of incredible skill and vision flocked to the movement.

Dance Buy posters at AllPosters.com

ucha's posters depict characters, mostly women, in both natural and abstracted form.  The posters abound in intricately woven networks of curling, curving, flowing lines.  Within an elaborate, dense composition of warm thick colors, the artist often offered a single, emotive figure. These women are highly stylized: their skin is flat and smooth, and their curling locks imitate the purely ornamental lines in the background.  And the women are storytellers: his "Four Seasons" muses depict a natural cycle of rest and restoration, while "La Danse"'s playful figure entices viewers to join her in a carefree dance.

Gismonda Buy posters at AllPosters.com

ucha's first poster for Bernhardt, in which the actress portrays Gismonda, marked the beginning of their six-year business liaison.  Mucha transformed Bernhardt into a true fantasy figure.  In “Gismonda,” she appears as an otherworldly queen, attired in ornately stylized robes and set off by a jeweled background.  Here was Mucha’s greatest talent: making mere mortals appear heavenly, golden, more beautiful than life.