mucha’s 4 seasons

ALPHONSE MARIA MUCHA, July 24, 1860 – July 14, 1939, a czech artist who studied in paris and munich, produced an immense amount of paintings, posters, advertisements, and book illustrations, as well as designs for jewellery, carpets, wallpaper, and theatre sets in what was initially called the MUCHA STYLE but became known as ART NOUVEAU ( new art ). MUCHA’S works frequently featured beautiful young women in flowing vaguely neoclassical looking robes, often surrounded by lush flowers which sometimes formed haloes behind the women’s heads. In contrast with contemporary poster makers he used pale pastel colors. the ART NOUVEAU style however, was one that MUCHA attempted to distance himself from throughout his life. he always insisted that rather than adhering to any fashionable stylistic form, his paintings came purely from within and czech art. he declared that art existed only to communicate a spiritual message, and nothing more.

THE SEASONS, 1896, was MUCHA’S first set of decorative panels and it became one of his most popular series. it was so popular that he was asked to produce at least two more sets based on the same theme in 1897 and 1900. designs for a further two more sets also exist. the idea of personifying the seasons was nothing new – examples could be found in the works of the old masters as well as in other publications at that time. however, MUCHA’S nymph-like women set against the seasonal countryside background breathed new life into the classic theme, MUCHA captures the mood of the seasons – innocent spring, sultry summer, fruitful autumn and frosty winter.

© alphonse mucha

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seasons in art 1

sailing nr.3

roger broders

he was the master of french travel posters, promoting early tourist destinations especially the beaches at the côte d’azur and the skiiing resorts in the french alps. ROGER BRODERS, 1883 – 1953, was a french illustrator who created a very distinctive graphic style in his work – overall about 100 posters – with simple lines and bold, flat areas of color. influenced by the CUBISTS, KANDINSKY, SEVERINI and DELAUNAY he designed masterful settings in his always evocative compositions. his motives ranged from the regions of alsace lorraine, vichy + jura down the rhone river into bourgogne and the french alps ( some of his most famous tourism posters were mountain and ski scenes in and around chamonix and mont blanc ), leading to the south of france, the colorful locations of marseilles, hyeres, sainte maxim, grasse, antibes, villefranche, monte carlo and menton. even today his work is still popular and lithographs of his posters are being sold.
ROGER BRODERS fully dedicated himself to poster art from 1920 to 1932 – interesting is the development of similar background-styles in animation around the same time, especially in the silly symphonies after the introduction of color in disney films in 1932. and – look at MARY BLAIR’S designs, she was a big fan of swiss graphic design and knew for sure BRODERS art as well. it’s a small world…

© roger broders

sailing nr.2

nasty canasta

NASTY CANASTA is the villain in one of my favorite BUGS BUNNY shorts, BARBARY COAST BUNNY. the cartoon, released in july 1956, was directed by CHUCK JONES, animation by ABE LEVITOW, RICHARD THOMPSON and KEN HARRIS, layouts by ROBERT GRIBBROEK, backgrounds PHILIP DE GUARD. below some scene captures.

© WB

early

time travel

when I was growing up reading whatever I could find, two writers, JULES VERNE and H.G.WELLS, and their books 20.000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA and THE TIME MACHINE were amongst my favorites. when the live action films were released, I was excited to see the books come alive. so I watched the disney 1954 capt.nemo and nautilus saga very early, as well as the scary time travel drama, released in 1960. I had no idea about the involvement of WALT DISNEY, GEORGE PAL and RICHARD FLEISCHER, MAX FLEISCHER’S son, at that time, the f i l m s were important. the search for more information came much later, what was way more difficult and time consuming than today with the internet . when I look at those pictures now I feel transported back in my own time machine… maybe some of you feel similar – here are some memories of these two special films

© disney enterprises, inc
© George Pal Productions, Galaxy Films Inc., MGM

through

georges barbier

in the year 1911 GEORGES BARBIER (1892-1932), at the age of 29, had his first exhibition in paris and became subsequently for the next 20 years one of the most successful artists of the 20th century, with commissions to design theatre and ballet costumes, to illustrate books and to create haute couture fashion illustrations.
barbier was influenced by AUBREY BEARDSLEY (1872-1898) and LEON BAKST (1866-1924), as well as ERTE (1892-1990). from the early twenties on ERTE and BARBIER both designed for the FOLIES BERGERE in paris, and were asked in 1924 to work for hollywood movies. while erte went to hollywood to costume a number of movies, including some segments of BEN HUR, barbier stayed in paris and sent his designs for a movie project to new york. he had been hired by silent movie star RUDOLPH VALENTINO and his designer-wife NATACHA RAMBOVA, to work on their film MONSIEUR BEAUCAIRE.
one of the great fashion magazines GAZETTE DU BON TON had barbier’s illustrations from 1912-1925, when it was bought out by VOGUE, where barbier continued with his work. the last stage show he worked on was PARIS SHAKES at the casino de paris with legendary JOSEPHINE BAKER. georges barbier died in 1932 at the age of 50.

mulan findings 6

during the pre-production of disney’s MULAN several amazing artists worked in the visual development team, PAUL FELIX was one of them. he always created the most stunning black+white pencil-‘paintings’, in his own style – very designed and stylized. he did not mind that I added some color to his black+white jewels, following the stylization in his drawings I wanted to test a different look in color as well. paul worked ( and still works ) after MULAN as a production designer at disney and created the most beautiful artwork for several animated feature films.

© disney enterprises, inc

missing

during my stay in europe I was back in the ‘seasons’ for a short time. seasons like spring or autumn with all the most beautiful changing colors don’t exist like that in this part of asia where I live. in a way it is eternal summer over here. seeing all the trees in full blossom made me realize that there are things I miss. so – after this lush spring event I decided to go back in autumn and dive into a palette of very different colors.

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