<h1>Visiting Mucha</h1>

I made it to the National of Museum of Archaeology in Valletta, Malta

to view the exhibiton about Alfonse Mucha entitled

In Quest of Beauty: Alphonse Mucha 1860-1939.

(mentioned here)

You cannot begin to imagine how beautiful it all was.

The stupendous Grand Salon of the museum was transformed into a living space of colour and beauty. I was there for close to an hour.

There is something from each of Mucha's special art forms exhibited -

line drawings, sketches, paintings, posters, books, documents, photographs, postcards, biscuit tins.... There is even a film documentary with authentic period film material and photographs showing Mucha at work. The film is a very clear-cut and concise re-telling the story of his life, his passions, his creations.

His name became the talk of Paris when he first created a poster for Sara Bernhardt, and from that day onwards he never looked back.

Portrait of  Sarah Bernhardt by William Downey

Sarah Bernardt as Empress Theodora. Photograph by William Downey.

Sometimes referred to as the father of Art Nouveau, Mucha had a knack of turning the ordinary into the extraordinary and making the beautiful into an aesthetic delight to excite the senses.

The photograph hereunder shows a model in Mucha's studio standing against a poster of Sarah Bernardt's role as Gismonda.

I was especially inspired by two of his quotes:

"The aim of art is to celebrate beauty..... Beauty is the projection of moral harmonies on material and physical planes."

and

"Black is the colour of bondage, blue is the past, yellow the joyous present, orange the glorious future."

If you're interested in receiving a complimentary copy of an exhibition brochure, send in your comment and you may be the lucky one getting it in the post. Remember to leave me a contact email or a link to your contact or otherwise email me so I can contact you for your postal address.