Monday, June 22, 2009

Ode to Leaves - Art Nouveau textbook primer


I was able to visit the Alphons Mucha Museum in Prague recently, and I highly recommend it! A great collection with lots of his early and late works, and much explanation. Information on the museum: http://www.mucha.cz/

One discovery was that his original posters were often in muted tones, beautiful but the prints made from them usually intensify the colors, and I like them that way even better.

Another thing I learned is that Mucha compiled a book on how to create art nouveau in his later years. Mucha's book has been translated into English. It is available here, from Dover: Mucha's Figures Decoratives

Another Dover book includes just the images from that book. I don't know why they did this, as they are almost the same price. I do own this one, and the illustrations are indeed nice. A lot of examples of figure-drawing (Mucha was classically-trained), but also many patterns and textures. It  is available here: The Art Nouveau Style Book of Alphonse Mucha

Here is one example illustration:















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