This is one of the several books I own on Alphonse Mucha. Many artists I know are in love with this man's work and with Art Nouveau in general. It's the design, the organic quality, the beauty, the infatuation with nature as design, it's the whole package. Maybe fashion got tired of it but artists never get tired of it. Anytime I am working n new designs I look at this work for inspiration.
This one was the big score for me in college - I got the LAST ONE in the US - it took about a month for them to hunt it down and ship it to me and it was a frightening $80 in 1988. I have treasured this thing all my adult life and it is definitely one of my desert island books. Seeing the prices for it on Amazon kind of blew me away but I will sell my Legos before I ever part with it. It was also one of the few books that had photos of his Slav Epic and they were only black and white. You can now see them in glorious color online - I believe they are on display now. This is such a treasure trove because it has just about EVERYTHING he did...
Had to post about this - it really is one of my biggest influences and the sheer desire to paint like this is what drove me out of the graphic design program I hated and into the Illustration program I wanted...
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