Sunday, June 30, 2019

Mucha at Poster House


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