Takes a bit of an efffort to get there. We were walking from Hilton Prague and got lost ( no map & no GPS our fault). But this was really something. Exceptional work of Alfons Mucha, amazing paintings, huge 4 x 4 m, imagine the effort of artistic work, inspirational and making proud to be Slavic. If you are in Prague you MUST see it.
Doesn't take that long to get there. We accidentally visited the Mucha museum beforehand and found it to be a good combination. We learnt about the artist's life then experienced the awesome exhibition that is the Slav Epic. Definitely recommend visiting both in the same day. Some grumpy staff but whatever.
It takes some research to figure out how to get to this museum but once you get there the Epic is well worth the visit. It's also not crowded with tourists like most places in Prague (at least when I was there).
This was the primary work of Alphonse Mucha's life, work that spanned 18 years of his career. In a sense, his other art nouveau works were all practice for these masterpieces, larger than life paintings that span the history of each of the Slavic peoples. Looking at the works, you yourself can feel the pride of the Slavs, even if your background doesn't quite match. The only draw back is the setting - the Veletrzni Palace isn't all that amazing of a gallery. It's very bare-bones and gets the job done though, certainly without distracting the viewer from the pieces. If this is your first time in Prague and you need something else to fill your visit in other than the Castle, then this would be the thing to see, and hands down beats any other Mucha museum in Prague.
It is kind of tricky getting here, you have to investigate a little bit and ask questions. But well worth it. It consists of 20 paintings ( 20 × 25 ft) and a video at the end. You have an option of when you enter the museum to see just the slav epic or other levels as well with works by rodin and picasso.so I opted for the tour where you can see the permanent exhibitions as well as the slav epic.It made my trip to Prague seeing the wonderful work of this art nouveau master.
Outstanding, even if this is not typical of what you expect of Mucha. The sheer scale of the work is amazing.
Everybody knows Alphonse Mucha as a painter of cutesy, mushy young women on biscuit advertisings. These ten paintings of the Slavic Epic are immense, heroic, beautiful, and refute his fame of a decorative painter. Being huge, no reproduction can really convey the beauty of these paintings. Go see them.
Absolutely worth the trip from downtown. A must see while in Prague. I appreciated the no frills display of the work.....as each piece is quite powerful. I found the video playing at the back of the exhibit to be equally interesting. Do pay for the printed guide which gives a great description of each piece.
Amazing and beautiful works from Mucha! worth a visit if you enjoy art and are interested in slavic culture and history.
Everytime I visit Praha, I always make time to visit the Slav Epic and sit to mediate for an hour or two surrounded by perhaps what is Mucha's masterpieces.