Southern Agenda

Feast for the Senses


You might not know the name Alphonse Mucha, but you certainly know the artist’s style. His work at the beginning of the twentieth century in Paris helped launch art nouveau, a design movement defined by its soft pastels and flowing patterns inspired by nature. You’ll recognize it from vintage Grateful Dead posters, tattoo art, video games, and manga comics, all of which make an appearance in Eternally New: The Art Nouveau World of Alphonse Mucha, at Roanoke’s Taubman Museum of Art. The exhibition, which runs through March 16, includes posters, prints, sculptures, and the U.S. debut of a Mucha immersive art experience developed by Paris’s Grand Palais Immersif and the Mucha Foundation in Prague. A room-sized projection transports visitors to Mucha’s world. “The posters come to life,” says Taubman executive director Cindy Petersen. “You feel like you’re being pulled in.” Visitors can even sniff Mucha’s vibrant world at scent stations, which capture the smell of the paints and polished floor of his studio, the Czech forests of his childhood, and the perfume of actress Sarah Bernhardt, whom the artist featured in advertising posters. “There’s a feeling of wonderment,” Petersen says. “It’s like you’re stepping into each of the works.”

taubmanmuseum.org/mucha