MUCHA: Master Artist
of Art Nouveau
Alphonse Mucha,
Combinaisons ornementales,
Folio Plate 59,
March 1901;
Collection of Patrick M. Rowe.
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artists like Utagawa Hiroshige and Katsushika Hokusai that made Art Nouveau
artists, as well as the Impressionists and Postimpressionists, aware of eastern ideas.
One of the most notable
features of traditional Japanese prints that had a major
impact on Art Nouveau artists was the modeling of
images with flat planes of
color. Since the time of the
Italian Renaissance until the
era of Art Nouveau, most
artists in the West shaded
images by using chiaroscuro; in other words, they
modeled images by changing colors from light to dark.
This process, developed by
painters like Giotto, Masaccio, and Leonardo da Vinci,
created a visual effect that
made images appear threedimensional. The Japanese
approach was something
strikingly new to the Art
Nouveau artists. In one of
Mucha’s prints illustrating
Anatole France’s book Clio
(Figure 6), this two-dimensional Japanese process of
modeling is used. Additionally, the flowing lines that
border and clearly define
Mucha’s images, as well as
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the overall asymmetry of
the composition, are traits
that originate with Japanese
woodblock prints. Mucha’s
inclusion of organic forms
is a feature that stems both
from the art of Japan and
the Rococo style. Mucha’s
women are rarely seen
without the framework of a
flower, leaf, or branch motif,
which also make up many
of his repeating decorative
patterns.
The incorporation of foreign elements, as well as
the inclusion of features
from a variety of historical European styles, is what
makes Art Nouveau “New.”
Unlike the earlier revivalist
styles, such as Neoclassical,
Neo-Gothic, Neo-Baroque,
or Neo-Rococo, in which
each movement’s ideas were
derived from a single source,
Art Nouveau was a complex
movement where artists borrowed concepts from many
different sources and used
their creativity to establish
an original style.
“We are very excited to bring
this exhibition to Pensacola
Museum of Art,” said the
Museum’s chief curator,
2015