From tomorrow September 29 2018 Bologna will host (for the first time) an important retrospective on the work of Alphonse Mucha. Until 20 January 2019 the halls of Palazzo Pallavicini will display 80 of the most famous works by the Czech artist, including 27 exhibited for the first time in Italy.

An interesting Alphonse Mucha’s Art Nouveau exhibition will open soon atthe spaces of Via San Felice, in the Palazzo Pallavicini.

Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939) was one of the most celebrated and influential artists of the Paris Art Nouveau, known to most for his graphics, such as theatrical posters made for the actress Sarah Bernhardt and her advertising images with beautiful women.

The exhibition, organized by Chiara Campagnoli, Rubens Fogacci and Deborah Petroni of Pallavicini srl in collaboration with Mucha Foundation and with the curator of Tomoko Sato, consists of three thematic sections: Women – Icons and Muse, Le Style Mucha – A Visual Language, and finally Beauty-The Power of Inspiration.

On the first section, Women – Icons and Muse, you can admire Gismonda, the first real poster designed by Mucha for Sarah Bernhardt, who received immediate appreciation as soon as it appeared on the Paris posters on January 1, 1895. After the success of this manifesto, Bernhardt offered to Mucha has a contract to produce the stage sets and costumes, as well as all the posters of her theatrical performances. During this contract, which lasted from 1895 to 1900, Mucha produced six more posters for Bernhardt’s performances, including La dama delle camelie (1896), Lorenzaccio (1896) and La Samaritana (1897).

Mucha received numerous commissions to design advertising posters, including those for famous brands such as JOB (cigarette paper), Lefèvre-Utile (biscuits) and Waverley (American bicycles). The section in fact includes mainly two groups of works: theater posters on Sarah Bernhardt and advertising posters for commercial products. In artnouveau.club you can book a Parisian 6.5 hours Art Nouveau Private tour about the life of Sarah Bernhardt. Click HERE for more info on this unique experience.

The second section is called Le Style Mucha – A Visual Language and exposes a particular and characteristic artistic formula, a new communicative language, which used the image of a woman – symbol of her message of beauty – along with flowers and other decorative elements, taken from Czech folk tradition and other exotic cultures. For Mucha, the ornamental posters were the ideal means of achieving his aspiration. Introduced for the first time by Mucha and its publisher, F. Champenois, these posters were for the most part devoid of text and made for purely decorative purposes; products in large quantities were immediately available for a large audience, thus becoming an alternative art form that could be shown off even by the most ordinary families.

Finally the third section, Beauty-The power of inspiration, traces the period when Mucha returned home (Prague) in 1910, to realize her dream of actively working for the political freedom of her country, a task that culminated in the realization of her work of art. Epic Slav (1912-1926) and other works made to inspire the spiritual unity of the Slavic peoples.

The final section shows examples of Mucha’s latest work, exploring how the Mucha style evolved into the art of message creation. The works on display in this last section include studies for the decoration of the then new Prague Town Hall, as well as the poster for the Epic Slav exhibition, held in Prague and Brno on the tenth anniversary of the birth of Czechoslovakia.

It’s interesting to know Who Was Alphonse Mucha, and you can read about it HERE.

Opening times:

Open from Thursday to Sunday from 11.00am to 8.00pm

Closed on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

The ticket office closes 1h before (19.00 last admission)

Extraordinary openings 26 December, 31 December (16.00 last admission), 1 January (from 2.00 pm), 2 January

Entrance ticket – Rates

– Full: 13€

– Reduced: 11€ (from 6 to 18 years old, over 65 with document, students up to 26 years old with card, military with card, tourist guides with card, practicing journalists and publicists with membership card regularly enrolled Order, disabled attendants in the company of the disabled, ICOM members with card)

– Groups (minimum 15 people): 10€ (1 free companion)

– Schools: 5€ (2 free escorts for each class)

– Bologna Welcome and Bologna Card Museums: 9€

– Thursday University (with card): 9€

– Free: children under 6 years, disabled with certificate

– Family ticket with children from 6 to 18 years of age: Parent euro 10.00; Minors from 6 to 18 years old 8€

– Open ticket: 16€ | Ticket with reservation without time and date constraints valid until the end of the exhibition

More info in Palazzo Pallavicini webpage.

Wonder who was Alphonse Mucha, and how was his life? JUST READ IT.