Alphonse Mucha, who worked in painting, illustration, and graphic design, was a leading figure in the Art Nouveau movement and became widely recognised in the 1890s for his theatrical posters and advertisements. After his death in 1939, Mucha’s family continued to preserve his artistic legacy, establishing the Mucha Foundation in 1992 to protect his work and organise exhibitions worldwide.
After ending a long-term agreement with its former operator, the pre-existing Mucha Museum located on Panska Street in Prague, Marcus Mucha, the artist’s great-grandson and the foundation’s executive director, announced that “the exhibition space on Panska Street is no longer affiliated with nor endorsed by the Mucha Foundation and its operations are unauthorised and in breach of its contractual obligations” (The Art Newspaper).
Alfons Mucha, The Slav Epic, 1928
Sebastian Pawlowski, director of the Mucha Museum on Panská Street told The Art Newspaper: “The news brief distributed by the developer of Palace Savarin and the Mucha Foundation is grossly misleading as it implies that the Mucha Museum, which I founded and that has been in operation since 1998, is moving from its current location to a new location. This is not the case.” He adds: “The original Mucha Museum in Panska is a fixture in the Prague cultural scene and will remain so.”
After more than 25 years and over two million visitors at its previous venue, the new Savarin location will offer a larger exhibition space of over 1,100 m2 (around 12,000 square feet). According to Marcus Mucha, great-grandson of Alphonse and CEO of the Mucha Foundation, it will house Mucha’s work and place “art and legacy firmly where it belongs, in a bespoke, beautifully designed space in the heart of historic Prague”.
Cover image: Palác Savarin - Wikimedia Commons by Crestyl
