Tomoko Sato

There’s plenty of work to be done

Text: Martina Hošková and M. Zisso; Photo: Archive

What drew you to the field of curation?

I was trained as an art historian, and wished to use my training – research skills and knowledge – to deepen the understanding of art in the wider context of history. I always believed that art was one of the finest expressions of human civilization, so I was interested in exploring the ideas and motivations behind the artists’ works and how art was interlinked with its surrounding society, politics, and other cultural developments. Therefore, becoming a curator was an ideal solution to fulfil my goal. I think the most essential role of a curator is to bridge or facilitate communication between artists – who are behind the artworks – and the viewers of such works, through exhibitions, publications, and other activities.

You are currently a curator at the Mucha Foundation. How long have you been associated with this organisation?

I started working with the Foundation at the end of 2007, some 17 years ago. Previously, I was a curator at the Barbican Art Gallery (Barbican Centre) in London. There, I specialised in exhibitions studying late 19th century and modern art movements, especially in Britain and France. Under such circumstances, I was given a project to work on the first Mucha exhibition, presenting the collection of the newly established Mucha Foundation, which was presented as part of the Barbican Centre’s Czech festival in 1993.

Can you tell us more about your work with the Foundation, and why you chose Mucha as the artist you wish to promote?

I am responsible for curating all the exhibitions presented by the Mucha Foundation, as well as the research programme associated with our exhibition projects. New findings and updated interpretations of Mucha’s works will be published in the exhibition catalogues and other publications. Ever since my involvement in the Barbican’s Mucha exhibition – which helped deepen my understanding of this Czech artist (who was closely associated with French Art Nouveau) – I was fascinated by his work, not just as a poster artist but also as a thinker, for whom art was a tool to express his philosophical ideas. So, when I was invited by John Mucha, President of the Mucha Foundation, to broaden the Foundation’s exhibition programme, as well as explain why and how this popular Art Nouveau artist created The Slav Epic along with other philosophical works in his homeland, I welcomed this opportunity to explore lesser-known aspects of Mucha.

According to Marcus Mucha, the artist’s great grandson, you are “changing the history of art”. How is that change taking place?

History changes whenever new information or new historical ‘truth’ is unearthed. When we face such new findings, we historians would reappraise the established understanding of the events in question. After analysing various factors surrounding these events, if our understanding or interpretation requires correction, history ‘changes’ with new, improved interpretation – it is a scientific process.

The same thing can be said about Mucha research. While I can comfortably say Mucha was one of the leading graphic artists of Art Nouveau in Paris, there are still so many unknown factors about Mucha, especially when we look at Mucha as a multifaceted artist who worked in a wide range of fields, as well as being a political / philosophical thinker and freemason / spiritualist. We still need to dig up unexplored materials from our archive and work in collaboration with international researchers in order to fill in gaps in his overall career.

In my view, while Mucha is one of the best-known artists globally in terms of the visual recognition of his famous style, I would say he is one of the least-understood artists in art history. Therefore, my aspiration is to establish Mucha’s rightful position in universal art history through our exhibitions and research projects.

How many countries have seen the Mucha exhibition so far?

As far as I know from the Mucha Foundation’s records, between 1993 and 2024, the Foundation presented the Mucha exhibition in 24 countries: Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Brazil, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Poland, Taiwan, United Kingdom, and the United States.

What are you planning next?

In February of this year, we are starting a major US tour with the Timeless Mucha exhibition at the Phillips Collection, Washington D.C. (22 February – 18 May), which will travel to three more American venues: the New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe (20 June – 20 September 2025); the Boca Raton Museum of Art, Florida (19 November – 1 March 2026); and the Nelson- Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City (11 April – 30 August 2026).

Then, this exhibition will go to the Museo Kaluz, Mexico City, which will be our first presentation of Mucha’s work in Mexico. The exhibition will survey the evolution of Mucha’s style, its underlying ideas, and its enduring influence on visual culture today.

We are also preparing another strand of travelling exhibitions to explore Mucha’s journey as a philosopher and pacifist artist, focusing on his late masterpiece, The Slav Epic (1912-1926), and his final, unfinished work – the triptych of The Age of Reason, The Age of Wisdom, and The Age of Love – which was conceived as a monument for humanity as the threat of war was looming over Europe for the second time. Through this exhibition, I am hoping to provoke thoughts and discussions about the meaning of Mucha’s ‘monument for humanity’ for us today.

Sarah Bernhardt once said that Alphonse Mucha made her immortal. Have you done the same for Alphonse Mucha’s art?

I do not think what Mucha did for Sarah Bernhardt is comparable to what I am doing for Mucha’s art now. While it’s true that his art consolidated the image of this great actress as the ‘Divine Sarah’, what I am doing is simply getting closer to the ‘real’ Mucha – trying to find out who he was, what he did, and why; and where he stands in the history of art.

As I mentioned earlier, curation and research are scientific processes. So, like many scientific theories and discoveries, my new ideas and findings about Mucha were founded upon my predecessors’ works. In the same way, I hope what I have been doing will also contribute to further understanding of Mucha’s work, led by the next generation of art historians and curators.

Is there someone you view as Mucha’s successor?

Yes, and not a single successor but many. As we show with the forthcoming Timeless Mucha exhibition tour in the United States, since the revival of Mucha and the Art Nouveau style in Britain and the United States during the 1960s-70s, Mucha’s art and humanitarian philosophy have been a major influential force on a wide range of graphic artists, as well as socially concerned street mural artists. Beyond their cultural and generational differences, they are the successors of Mucha’s legacy, and, through their works, I believe Mucha’s DNA will be passed on to the next generation of artists. Here, I would like to quote Mucha’s words: “Art is… as eternal as man’s progress… Art is therefore in a continuous state of development.”

Could you offer some guidance to the next generation of curators?

A work of art is created to be seen and to convey the artist’s message to the viewer (the community). A curator’s role is to communicate this message on behalf of the artist, and to evaluate its meaning in the wider historical / social context. It is important to establish our own principles for curatorial style, as well as our stance (aesthetic, social, or philosophical) for value judgement for the interpretation and contextualisation of the work of art and the artist. Also, a curator needs to be a good communicator, passionate about sharing knowledge with the community.