Mucha Alfons Maria

Theater artist, illustrator, jewelry designer and poster artist, one of the most famous representatives of the "art Nouveau style". He studied at the Academy of fine arts in Munich, the Julian Academy, and the colarossi Academy in Paris. He headed the Association of Slavic artists. From 1887, for some time, Mucha shared his Studio with van Gogh. Here, the Fly got acquainted with the artists Wyspianski, Verkade, Mecoptera, Podkowinski and Slewinski. In Paris, he illustrated the multi-volume work "Scenes and episodes from the history of Germany" by the French historian Charles Seignobos. Since 1893, he served as the theater's chief decorator: his brush includes posters for the plays "the Lady with camellias", "Medea", "the Samaritan woman", "Tosca" and "hamlet", as well as the scenery of these productions, costumes and decorations. During these years, he became widely known as the author of labels and vignettes of various products - from champagne and biscuits to bicycles and matches, as well as as a designer of jewelry, interiors, applied art (carpets, curtains, etc.). In 1906, he accepted the offer of the American society of illustrators and moved to the United States, considered the largest artist of our time. Mucha teaches at the Art Institute of Chicago, and in 1908 created sets for the German theater in new York. However, in 1910 he returned to the Czech Republic, where over the next years, twenty monumental paintings depicting turning points in the history of the Slavic peoples emerged from under his brush, in particular, "Slavs in the historical homeland" ("Slavs in the ancestral homeland"), "Simeon, king of Bulgaria", "the Sermon of master Jan Huss", "After the battle of Grunwald", "Jan Komensky leaves his homeland" and "the Abolition of serfdom in Russia". A Museum in Prague, an exhibition of the "Slavic epic" cycle in Moravian Krumlov, and an exhibition about the early years of his life in the restored building of the former court in Ivancica are dedicated to the work of Alfons Mucha. Mukha's works are included in the collections of many prominent museums and galleries around the world. Currently, plans are being developed for the construction of a special building for the exhibition of the "Slavic epic" in Prague's Stromovka Park, not far from the former exhibition complex.