Rediscovering Mucha

This afternoon I have been surfing the net looking at prints and paintings by Alphonse Mucha. He is my "favorite" artist. His paintings have a certain aesthetic that appeals to me. I say "favorite" because my art opinions are uninformed. I have only a rudimentary understanding of art history. Maybe if I studied art more, I would come across another favorite artist. To be precise, Mucha is my favorite Art Nouveau artist of any nationality. (He is Czech.) Caravaggio is one of my favorite Italian Baroque artists. Yes, that is fair.

I took an Art & Architecture class at Charles University during my semester in Prague. We took field trips almost every day, one of which was to the Mucha Museum. This was a wonderful class. We would just be walking down the street and our instructor would point to a building and describe some of it's features. "Rococco. Neo-classical. Art Deco,"we responded. She took us to visit Romanesque cellars, Gothic churches, and of course the castle. Prague is a great city for learning about art and architecture. It has historically been an important city in the region and survived wars and communism with much less damage than its neighbors.

I think someday I'll decorate a bathroom or maybe a sunporch in Art Nouveau style. Someday...