The China Mail - 'Art for everyone': Mucha's masterpiece to find home in Prague, 100 years on

A painter, graphic artist and designer, Mucha (1860-1939) gained fame for his floral posters, especially of French actress Sarah Bernhardt, which he made while living in Paris -- and his work later helped inspire the hit Disney film "Frozen", according to his descendant.

The museum in the Baroque Savarin Palace in Prague's UNESCO-listed historic centre will display over 100 works, including paintings, lithographs and sketches, from February 24.

It will also provide a long-sought home for Mucha's grand Slav Epic cycle.

British-born Marcus Mucha, who heads a foundation managing the artist's legacy, told AFP that the museum would offer "art for everyone" in line with his great-grandfather's philosophy.

"He always said: 'I did not want my art to be for the salons of the elite'. He thought of his posters in Paris as making the streets and squares an open-air art gallery for everybody."

Most of the artwork on display comes from the family collection comprising some 4,000 artworks.

The museum will also display four smaller reproductions of his Slav Epic, a cycle of 20 canvases ranging in size from 20 to 50 square metres (215 to 540 square feet).

Mucha spent 18 years on the work depicting moments from the history and mythology of the Slavic peoples.

He finished it in 1928, 10 years after Czechoslovakia became independent following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

The series went on display in Prague, but was quickly placed in depositories and even under a pile of coal when the Nazis invaded in 1939.

- 'Sensitive national treasure' -

The Slav Epic was not displayed again until 1963, at the Moravsky Krumlov castle near Mucha's native town.

It was removed in 2011 as the castle fell into disrepair and reinstalled 10 years later following reconstruction.

The cycle also toured Japan in 2017, drawing 660,000 viewers.

Mucha donated the work to Prague under a contract from 1913 on condition that the city find a suitable place for it. It had failed to do so until now, following a series of disputes.

Describing the Slav Epic as "a sensitive national treasure", Marcus Mucha said the masterpiece will ultimately be showcased in another part of the Savarin Palace, to be designed by acclaimed British architect Thomas Heatherwick.

The cycle will be shown in a "purpose-built space that's made in accordance with how Alfons wanted it displayed," he added.

Until then, he expects to regularly rotate smaller reproductions in one of the museum's three rooms.

"We'll be telling different stories around the Epic, so that when it does move to Prague... the public will be able to enjoy its full complexity," he said.

- Inspiration for others -

Marcus Mucha hopes the new section with the Slav Epic will open by 2028, on the 100th anniversary of completion.

Mucha "fell off the radar" in the West during the Nazi occupation and communism, but he is a constant inspiration for artists worldwide, including Cuban-American comic artist Joe Quesada, known for the Marvel comics, he said.

Working as a Hollywood producer before moving to Prague, Marcus Mucha once got a phone call from Disney Studios asking if he was related to the artist.

"They told me they were using one of his images, Princess Hyacinth in an ice palace, as the jumping-off point for a new animated movie. And that was the first piece of concept art for 'Frozen'," he said.

The Savarin Palace on Prague's fancy shopping Na Prikope street is near the Estates Theatre where Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart conducted the premiere of his opera Don Giovanni in 1787.

"To have my great-grandfather's work here in the heart of historic Prague in such a storied building... If Alfons were here today, as we feel his spirit around us, I think he'd be feeling incredibly proud," Mucha said.

K.Lam--ThChM