The Walker gallery in Liverpool are currently hosting an Alphonse Mucha art exhibition and for the sum of £7 (£5 cons.) you can pop in and have a look around. It also includes a 5 minute video by his great grandaughter actress Tamsin Omond.
However, if you’re expecting to find a treasure trove of Alphonse Mucha original paintings in this art exhibition you will be sorely disappointed as most of what is on display are just prints, large prints maybe, but still prints, not the originals. The four originals included are three rough sketches and a study, hardly a collection worthy of such a great artist as Alphonse Mucha. The Alphonse Mucha exhibition is not massively large and clearly they ran out of prints, let alone originals, since a massive Burns Jones adorns much of the last part of the far wall … and there’s a Mackintosh artbook on the bench for some reason. Oh I see, that’s Art Nouveau as well so let’s throw it in. I was really very surprised to find a major art gallery hosting an exhibition by a famous artist like Alphonse Mucha with so little original work on display. The prints may be old but they are barely antiques by anyone’s standards and one or two have seen better days too.
Clearly it is all about making money nowadays and if we can get the public to pay for looking at a load of art prints why bother trying to get an exhibition of original artwork together? Pleasant enough to look at but ultimately rather disappointing and disillusioning. I think the Walker Gallery should really have done better than this. In fact, you’d probably be better off spending your money on an art print you can keep forever by looking here.
