NYC
has a new museum - Poster House. It is
the first museum in the city devoted entirely to posters.
And
it's also entirely run by females.
Interesting.
When I
read that the first exhibit would feature Alphonse Mucha I looked up the
address - it's 119 west 23rd and made plans to head on over because I love
Mucha.
When I
got there I was surprised to find another exhibit - which featured work from a
design collective called Cyan - to be inspirational as well since I am all
about collages these days.
But
back to Mucha. Although I am a big fan I
did not know that this piece, that he created for a Sarah Bernhardt's Gismonda
was his breakthrough work. Apparently
she liked it so much because it made her appear regal, that she printed 5000
copies to distribute to fans.
He
continued to collaborate with her throughout their lives, even designing costumes
for her.
Meanwhile I decided a few years back that I loved Mucha
enough to pay homage to his work.
While
I love his flowers, and will use them eventually, I started with his pretty
ladies.
Since
they looked like princesses I thought I would combine them with images of
castles that I have collected from my travels.
Here
was the inspiration for the first piece.
And
with a bit of artistic license, here is my interpretation. That's Kilkea Castle in Ireland in the background.
More
to come now that I have been inspired by seeing so many lovely pieces. You can check them out yourself until October
6. It's worth a trip!
Cheers!
PJ
(c)
2019 PJ Lehrer
