Last Day In Prague

Sunday, June 16, 2019
Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
Today is our last day in Prague and thankfully the weather has changed to a pleasant 75 degrees! After a late night (at least for us) we slept in and enjoyed a late breakfast while finalizing our plans for the day. We decided to see what we can learn about one of their well loved artists, Alphonse Mucha the famous Art Deco artist, and then on to the more current history to learn about life under the Soviets by visiting the Museum of Communism. Quite a contrast from a colorful artist to the oppression of communism. We decided to start with the dark stuff early, and end on the uplifting creative side.
The Communism Museum was founded in 2001 by an American businessman Glenn Spicker with and investment of $28,000 for 1000 artifacts; he commissioned Jan Kaplan a documentary filmmaker to design the museum. He created a three act tragedy, the ideals of communism, the harsh reality life, and the nightmare of the police state. The result is an impressive showing of genuine artifacts (photos, clothes, household items, school books, propaganda posters, etc) which showed life on a daily basis under the Communists. Along with these items are stories of the repression, spying on your fellow workers, neighbors, and even family giving information to the secret police. It also has explanations and examples of their failed economic and political theories. There are video clips of personal stories of by survivors of this period. It was fascinating to hear the actual people tell what it was like to live in this time, how they managed to cope and live through this failed experiment. It was very powerful and very moving. It was also very telling in that the Soviets, through their official apparatus, controlled everything. The American political concept of separation of powers (President, Congress, Judiciary) in order to insure everyone’s rights and protect the people from this type of concentration of power is quite clear. We could have stayed hours longer to listen to all the videos of people’s stories. As you exit there are two simple yet powerful exhibits as you can see in the photos.
Then we went to the Mucha Museum after a short walk through the busy street. This being Sunday the streets were packed with people,  merchants, entertainers and even a large gathering of a group of Hare Krishnas, creating a very lively scene. After a short break for lunch we went to the museum. 
Mucha was a struggling but accomplished artist living in Paris when his big break came. He had worked with an engraver who was the major one in Paris for posters (theaters, advertising, and other art work). One Christmas Alphonse was too poor to travel back to Prague and was hanging out with the printer. Suddenly the printer got an emergency order from the actress Sarah Bernhardt for advertising a play she was starring in called Gismonda. With all the other more established artists being gone for the Christmas Holidays, he recommended Mucha. His initial work so impressed her the next thing you know he had a six year contract! It shows how much of life is being in the right place at the right time.  Printing was done by lithograph constrained by the size of available printing stones and paper. Mucha designed the long narrow posters, so emblematic of his work, and devised a way to split the image in half, inscribing it in two parts side by side on the stone with small marks on the edges so it could be printed cut and pieced together to create the long format he desired.  This was quite a sensation and admired by many.  The Art Deco style is very evident in Prague in the exterior decoration on buildings and interior lighting, columns, ceilings, and even stained glass.
We finished our visit to Prague with a lovely dinner at the Grand Cru.  Although it has a French name, the restaurant utilizes fresh local ingredients specializing in Austrian dishes.  We had a delicious salad with ham, oranges, goat cheese and both green and white asparagus.  White asparagus is a special delicacy here, and we are in just the right season to having it at its peak.  Next we had typical Austrian veal, with local mushrooms and the white asparagus. Along with some great burgundy it was fablous send off to Prague.
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Comments

Marette
2019-06-21

Thanks for the opportunity to live vicariously on your river trip and beyond. I’m sorry it’s over..... it was wonderful!

2025-02-10

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