Don't Sleep on Frédéric Back

I meant to post this a long time ago, but if you're in Tokyo tomorrow is the last day to catch this amazing Studio Ghibli sponsored exhibit on Canadian animator, Frederic Back. 

Animator, illustrator, muralist, author, Knight, and Academy Award winner has a plethora of his work in film and television at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo on display until tomorrow I'm afraid.

There are over one thousand drawings from his days of studying Fine Art in France, to his illustrations, his educational animation work at Radio Canada to (what I found most emotionally moving) tons of sketches he made traveling cross country in Canada with his wife on their honeymoon. Of course there is original work from his Academy Award winning films, The Man Who Planted Trees, and Crac.

There's a sleepy, dreamlike quality to his work that comes off almost like post-Impressionistic art in animation. Nothing to sleep on. Very inspiring.

Old News But Still Good News - Art of Disney Animation in Japan

One of the great things about being in Japan is stumbling on art related surprises from back home. Like the Norman Rockwell exhibition that came to the Fuchu Art Museum last year.

Or The Colors of Mary Blair exhibition OR even better the Mary Blair Store which opened in Ginza.

I first became aware of these rare treasures stumbling on a full-on Art of Disney exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo back in July of 2006.

It sounds like the thing to say but it was, yes....magical. I went twice.

Why aren't there more exhibitions like this in the USA?? The Museum of Metropolitan Art had a week long series of exhibitions and panel discussions about the metaphorical associations between modern fashion and the superhero genre of all things.

2006...

Someone discovers 250 pieces of lost original Disney production art in a janitor's closet at Chiba University. (What?) Production art from works as early as Flowers and Trees, Snow White and The Three Little Pigs. Other works included animation cells, storyboards, production notes, and sketches from works like Cinderella, Pinocchio, Lady and the Tramp and Sleeping Beauty.

These pieces were handpicked by Walt Disney himself to go on tour through 17 cities in Japan in 1960 to promote the art of the Disney studio and his then upcoming film: Sleeping Beauty. At the end of the tour, they wound up at Chiba University as an educational resource. (Whether this was meant to be permanent or temporary, I don't know---- but what DID end up happening was that the 250 priceless pieces ended up a janitor's closet.

Ultimately the discovery of these works prompted an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo -- along with an additional 350 pieces loaned by Disney's Animation Research Library (ARL).

An awesome and well done exhibition. Open, interactive, intelligent as well as entertaining. It had the feeling of an interactive walk through one of Walt Disney's Disneyland TV series back in the day.

I just finally got my hands on the Art of Disney DVD as well at the 243 page museum catalog book featuring all the 600 pieces that were on exhibit. I didn't buy it at first because honestly, the exhibition was so intense, I just imagined the DVD and book just being pale in comparison.

I was happy to be proven wrong. Like the exhibition, the book and the DVD is filled to the brim and just cannot be digested in only one or two settings.

Over the next few days I'll do my best to post a few things from the DVD or the book. In the meantime enjoy some of these photos I ripped from the DVD.

Check out the commercial for the Japanese Art of Disney DVD. Here.

Color Comes to Tokyo

Saw a great exhibition today. The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT) today started a three month exhibition displaying the works of American artist, Mary Blair. Mary Blair was a commercial artist well known for her work with the Walt Disney Animation Studio and Walt Disney Imagineering. Starting around 1940 she was a key conceptualist for many Disney shorts and films such as, "Cinderella", "Alice in Wonderland", "Peter Pan" and  "Song of the South."









Mary Blair provided the concepts and designs for the "It's a Small World" attraction at Disneyland. Her legacy lives on as her style and design is still used as the model when updates are made to the attraction.

Her work is bold and simple. Complex and childlike. She might use simple wall of color against deep shadow for impact. Sometimes she used a array of hues and colors in an almost mosaic like composition. Color can be used to invoke mood, direct your eyes to a certain point or to communicate. Her work did all this and more.

Mary Blair maybe wasn't so well known for her commercial work by name, but her style is certainly recognizable by many. Notably illustrations for the Golden Books and many commercial food products and household goods advertised throughout the 1950'sand 1960's. That bold but childlike appeal and feel of her work of her work has echoed into much of the commercial illustration we see today.

Aside from hundreds of pieces of her works being on display, her Disney Legend Award (the first female to ever receive one), her Annie award, a recreation of her work studio, several of pieces of art from her personal home were also presented. Works done not only by herself but her husband Lee Blair, (brother to animator Preston Blair) and even a couple of piece from her Walt Disney Imagineering collaborator, Marc Davis. Great stuff.