Posters by Czech Art Nouveau master Alfons Mucha now on display in Seoul

Prague/Seoul, Oct 30 (CTK) – A collection of posters by Czech Art Nouveau artist Alfons Mucha (1860-1939), gathered by former tennis star Ivan Lendl and now owned by businessman Richard Fuxa, is displayed in Seoul within its world tour, Pavlina Stranska, from the Fuxa foundation, has told CTK.

Some 10,000 tickets to the exhibition were sold online before its opening, she added.

About 17,000 people saw the previous display of Mucha’s posters held in New York for almost four months.

In the South Korean capital, the posters are presented in the My Art Museum until March 1, 2020, said Fuxa, the chairman of his foundation’s board.

The tickets to this exhibition are the best sold tickets online of all in Seoul at the moment, he added.

Six years ago, the exhibition of Mucha’s posters in the Municipal House in Prague was one of the most popular events in the capital, attracting 185,000 visitors, and the most visited art exhibition in the Czech Republic of 2013. It drew attention also because of Lendl, 59, one of the most successful Czechoslovak tennis players, who fled the Communist Czechoslovakia in 1986 and settled down in the United States.

The Fuxa collection is exceptional as it is very comprehensive and some of the posters, included in it, are available in one copy only or in three copies in the world.

The current exhibition’s curator is art historian Karel Srp, Stranska previously said.

Fuxa told CTK some time ago that he would like to display the valuable collection in Prague permanently, best linked to Mucha’s Slav Epic, a cycle of 20 large-scale paintings depicting the Slav mythology and Czech history, created in 1910-1928.

Fuxa, who owns the collection through his foundation, did not say how much he had paid for it. The media speculated about some 70 million crowns, but the real price was probably higher.

The exhibition in South Korea offers an original connection of Czech Art Nouveau and Korean design and flower decorations.