Organised by Art Services International, Alphonse Mucha: The Spirit of Art Nouveau covered Mucha's entire career and featured over 100 of his most important paintings, posters, panneaux décoratifs, jewellery, sculpture, pastels, drawings and illustrations. Works on loan from international collections in the Czech Republic, Britain, and America joined those on loan from the Mucha Trust, the world's largest and most comprehensive collection of Mucha's art. Works in the exhibition ranged from his large-scale posters, like Princess Hyacinth, lent by famous tennis player Ivan Lendl, to the elaborate gold, enamel, and gemstone necklace Mucha designed for his wife, Maria Chytilová, in 1906, the year of their marriage.
Despite Mucha's vast popularity in the United States and Europe during his lifetime and the significance of American patronage for his career, there had been no major exhibition of his work in the United States since 1921.
A 352-page, full-colour catalogue, written by an international team of Mucha specialists, accompanied the exhibition. The catalogue includes essays about Mucha's life and work in Bohemia, France, and America; as well as essays describing the influences of Mucha's time, and the correlation between his work and patrons.
