A major international exhibition featuring some 100 works by Alphonse Mucha, the famed master of Art Nouveau, opens this weekend, with a third of the works having never been exhibited before.

A team of 25-30 people has been at the Gran Salon of the Museum of Archaeology, in Valletta for almost a fortnight, giving the final touches to the “set” of this show titled In Quest Of Beauty: Alphonse Mucha 1860-1939.

The spacious Salon has been divided into sections, where Mucha’s work will be exhibited under three themes: Women: Icons and Muses, Flowers and Nature and Beauty, Truth, Love.

A collaborative endeavour by the Mucha Foundation in Prague and Heritage Malta, the exhibition will feature drawings, paintings, original posters, lithographs, items of jewellery and packaging as well as cigarette cards. One of the exhibition highlights will be his first-ever produced poster dating to 1894, titled Gismonda, featuring actress Sarah Bernhardt.

The senior curator of the National Museum of Fine Arts, Alexander Debono, explained how Mucha “revolutionised the idea of the poster”. The artist’s designs, he added, were better known and more recognised than he was, pointing out that the exhibition was also meant as an introduction to the artist.

Hailing Mucha as an artist who did “for Moet and Chandon what Andy Warhol did for Campbell Soup or Brillo”, Heritage Malta chairman Joe Said explained the exhibition was in line with the national agency’s mission of making art accessible to the public and with its function of attracting new audiences to art.

Mucha’s work possessed a strong sense of aesthetic that should appeal to the public at large because it did not necessarily require profound interpretation.

Culture Parliamentary Secretary Mario de Marco said Heritage Malta did not only have a duty to safeguard Malta’s heritage but also that of promoting foreign and international art.

Dr de Marco pointed out that Heritage Malta had acquired artworks by Maltese artists such as Esprit Barthet, Caesar Attard, Austin Camilleri and others to enhance the modern and contemporary national collection.

The exhibition will be open to the public from tomorrow till May 15. Visitors can view the exhibition when purchasing a ticket to the Archaeology Museum. No extra charges will apply.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a publication titled Art Nouveau And Malta.