BEIJING, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- A special exhibition on Art Nouveau pioneer Alphonse Mucha opened Friday at the National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in Beijing.

The exhibition will showcase more than 240 items including the posters, decorative sheets, book illustrations, oil paintings and photography designed or created by Mucha.

Mucha (1860-1939) was internationally renowned for pioneering Art Nouveau, a global art deco movement that took place in the late 19th century and 20th century.

The movement took a stand against the traditional decorative style by drawing inspiration from Oriental art and returning to nature to extract abstract decorative patterns from the morphology of plants and flowers and replace stiff straight lines with organic, continuous curved lines.

The exhibition will last until Dec. 8.