Alphonse Mucha
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
Alfons Maria Mucha (July 24, 1860 – July 14, 1939) was a Paris-based Czech painter and decorative artist.
Legacy
By the time of his death, Mucha's style was considered outdated. However, his son, author Jiří Mucha, devoted much of his life to writing about him and bringing attention to his art. Interest in Mucha's distinctive style experienced a strong revival in the 1960s (with a general interest in Art Nouveau) and is particularly evident in the psychedelic posters of Hapshash and the Coloured Coat, the collective name for two British artists, Michael English and Nigel Waymouth, who designed posters for groups such as Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band. It has continued to experience periodic revivals of interest for illustrators and artists. It is a strong acknowledged influence for Stuckist painter Paul Harvey whose subjects have included Madonna and whose work was used to promote The Stuckists Punk Victorian show in 2004. Comic book artist and current Marvel Comics editor in chief Joe Quesada also borrowed heavily from Mucha's techniques for a series of covers, posters, and prints.
One of Mucha's paintings, Quo Vadis or alternately Petronius and Eunice, was the subject of a legal dispute in 1986. The judgment handed down by Richard Posner describes parts of Mucha's life and work biographically.
Among his many other accomplishments, Mucha was also the founder of Czech Freemasonry.
See also
