The trio of Alfons Mucha’s artworks, besides his paintings, represents fundamental principles of creative immortality of an artist associated with Belle Époque to which the programme of this year’s Smetana’s Litomyšl is dedicated. Two significant drawings – Panovnice [The Sovereign] of 1929 and the portrait of the French actress Sarah Bernhardt of 1921 with whom Mucha collaborated for some time – represent the very essence of his artistry. The third work of art is one of the famous Art Nouveau posters created using the technique of colour lithography in 1900.
The exhibition Alfons Mucha v Jiří David is their symbolic meeting reflecting on the transformation of carefree “beautiful timelessness”. In this dialogue, David is represented by a large painting Apotheosis (2015), a celebration and reflection of Mucha’s Apotheosis (1926) of history of Slavic people of The Slav Epic cycle. After almost than a hundred years, Jiří David provocatively captured the features and shifts of our current society in this painting through subtle nuances.
